Yuanta gift money to Chen family without aims: Yen

Yuanta chairman Yen Ching-chang made the clarification yesterday, one day after Ma Wei-chien and Ma Wei-chen, Yuanta president and chief operating officer, were questioned by prosecutors for possible bribery of the former first family by giving special favors in assuring certain business deals.

The Ma brothers and their father Ma Chih-ling, founder and chairman of the Yuanta group, made a public appearance while paying homages to Formosa Plastic Group founder Wang Yung-ching, who died last week.

They declined to answer any questions raised by reporters and got into a car that sped away.

The Ma brothers were questioned by prosecutors about their remittances of cash totalling US$180,000 through four bank accounts, indirectly into the accounts of the former first family in 2005.

But Yen took the initiative of meeting with the press in an obvious attempt to refute widespread speculation that Yuanta had made payoffs to the former first family for the nod to acquire Fuhwa Financial Holding Company, when then opposition Kuomintang decided to sell its stake in the company.

Yen said former President Chen openly declared that he would accept no gifts at his son Chen Chih-chung's wedding.

However, it is still a common practice for enterprises to offer gifts for the first son's wedding, Yen said.

After sounding out from "an acquaintance," the Ma brothers gave NT$6 million in travelers checks as a wedding present, assuming the money could be used for honeymoon travel by the president's son.

Yen declined to reveal the name of the "acquaintance," but he emphasized that the money came from the pockets of the Ma brothers and had no ties to the corporation, although both are major shareholders of Yuanta.

The personal behavior of the Ma brothers involving their own money had no relation with Yuanta's acquisition of Fuhwa Financial, Yen said, adding that the brothers already provided that information in their statements to investigating prosecutors.

Yen, a former finance minister, said the merger of Fuhwa by Yuanta was completed in absolute transparency and with reasonable financial terms.

He also explained the Ma brothers had spent personal money without any financial involvement by Yuanta or its affiliated firms. This exemplified the principle of corporate governance consistently upheld by the Yuanta Group, Yen stressed.

There could be more cases of giving expensive gifts or cash to the former first family to be exposed as prosecutors on the special criminal investigation task force under the Supreme Prosecutor Office continue digging into the overseas financial operations of the Chen family.

It is a common Chinese custom for guests to offer congratulatory gifts to newlyweds and their families by placing cash in red envelopes when attending wedding banquets.

Former President Chen made the public announcement that he would not accept any "red envelopes" for his son's wedding -- dubbed as "the wedding of the century" at that time.

It became known now that instead of offering red envelopes, enterprises and businesspeople could have tried to outbid each other in the form of giving wedding gifts to the former first family in various other forms, including jewelry, expensive wristwatches, or vouchers for department stores, in order to win support for certain large-scale business deals.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email