Court Rules IGPASC’s Disposition to Freeze KMT’s Assets Legal/ KMT to Appeal Ruling

 Court Rules IGPASC’s Disposition to Freeze KMT’s Assets Legal/ KMT to Appeal Ruling

Source: UDN

January 17, 2020

The bill titled the Statute Governing Ill-gotten Assets of Political Parties and their Affiliated Organizations was promulgated into law on August 10, 2016, and went into effect three days later, starting August 13. On the day following promulgation, August 11, the KMT withdrew NT$520 million (approx. US$17.4 million) from its account at Bank SinoPac, and then bought ten Bank of Taiwan manager’s checks in the amount of NT$52 million (approx. US$1.74 ) each, one of which was cashed by the KMT on August 30, 2016.

The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Commission (IGPASC), under the Cabinet, suspected that the KMT wanted to engage in divestment of its assets before the Statute took effect, so on September 21, 2016, the Commission separately issued an urgent official letter to Bank SinoPac and Bank of Taiwan, ordering the former to freeze the KMT’s account at the bank and the latter to freeze the KMT’s nine uncashed checks. A total of over NT$800 million in assets of the KMT were thus frozen by the IGPASC.

The KMT consequently filed an administrative suit with the Taipei High Administrative Court against the IGPASC’s administrative disposition to freeze the KMT’s assets. Yesterday, after an over three-year-long trial, the Court determined that the IGPASC’s disposition was legal and no flaws were involved in the proceedings of the disposition, ruling against the KMT. The ruling may still be appealed.

In response, the KMT expressed deep regret over the court ruling, deciding to file an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court.

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