Taiwan's People First Party defend founder Soong, rebuke corruption allegations
Taiwan’s People First Party (PFP) has refuted corruption allegations surrounding its founder and chairperson James Soong (宋楚瑜) after a cohort of journalists released a report claiming he had deposited 13.67 million Swiss francs (NT$415 million) in a Swiss bank account during the 1990s and 2000s.
The PFP claims the information provided about Soong’s account on the website is completely inaccurate and has evidence to disprove it, per a UDN report.
Soong’s name appeared in the “Suisse Secrets” data leak earlier in the week. Released by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), it includes details of about 30,000 Credit Suisse clients that include dozens of alleged corrupt government officials, criminals, and human rights abusers, per OCCRP.
The OCCRP website states Taiwan’s opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), had previously accused Soong of embezzling millions from party coffers and also mentions accusations by a former French foreign minister that Soong received kickbacks from a 1991 Taiwan Navy procurement deal (of Lafayette-class frigates) which was formalized while he was Secretary-General of the KMT.
The PFP claim Soong was not involved in the commissioning of the Lafayette frigates at all. They say there was speculation in foreign media about this as early as 2003, and yet even then it was clear Soong was not implicated.
As for the claims of previously embezzling party funds that arose during the 2000 general election, the PFP says a detailed judicial investigation had already proved Soong's innocence. The PFP says the content of the relevant allegations was inaccurate and that the news sources cited had no credibility.
The PFP said the website’s quoting of former French foreign minister Dumas as saying that NT$400 million was paid to the KMT chief was more "utter nonsense." Read More...
