Company associated with TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je searched by prosecutors

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) The office of a company linked to Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was searched by prosecutors on Wednesday in response to allegations concerning false reporting of political expenses during January's presidential election.

TPP spokesperson Celina Wu (吳怡萱) said on Wednesday morning that Investigation Bureau agents led by Taipei prosecutors searched Ko's workplace in the Taiwan Glass Building in Songshan District.

However, TPP Deputy Secretary-General Hsu Fu (許甫) later told reporters that the search had not involved TPP premises or Ko's office.

Prosecutors were said to have searched the MuKo Public Relations Marketing Limited office on the second floor of the building between 9:00 a.m. and 12:22 p.m.

The company exclusively sells merchandise bearing the former Taipei mayor's trademark "kp" logo. The TPP premises are next to the MuKo office.

Hsu also told reporters on Wednesday that the TPP had already "voluntarily" handed over six boxes of documents covering the presidential election period in January.

"We hope that giving this to the investigators will help clarify the situation as soon as possible," he said.

The TPP, which was founded by Ko in 2019 and won third place in Taiwan's presidential election in January, has been embroiled in a scandal over accounting discrepancies for the past few weeks.

At a press conference on Monday, the then deputy chief of Ko's election campaign office Vicky Chen (陳智菡) admitted that 17 items had either been inaccurately or not declared at all.

Chen also said that approximately NT$18.17 million (US$562,852) in payments to OCT Entertainment Co., Neo Creative Marketing Production Co., and MuKo Public Relations Marketing Limited had been declared as expenses. But the party's campaign team had not been notified of these payments, Chen said.

The TPP blamed Tuanmu Cheng (端木正), an accountant contracted by the campaign's finance department, for the misreporting.

On Wednesday, the TPP doubled down on blaming the accountant.

Wu showed reporters screenshots indicating that the TPP had given Tuanmu two of its six access privileges for the Control Yuan's declarations system. In addition to Tuanmu, his assistant, identified as Mr Chen (陳), had also made changes through the system, Wu said.

The party spokesperson said this "proves" that the TPP entrusted Tuanmu to handle this aspect of financial reporting to the Control Yuan, which oversees campaign donations and expenses.

Wu added that the TPP was "puzzled" by Tuanmu's declarations of payments to Neo Creative Marketing Production Co. and OCT Entertainment Co.

In a letter to TPP members later on Wednesday, Ko admitted he "hired unsuitable people."

"The 2024 presidential election was the first time we faced such a large-scale election," Ko said in the letter. "We lacked a professional team, but we shouldn't have settled for simplicity and outsourced important tasks without double-checking. We also were responsible."

Ko also confirmed the resignation of Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊), a lawmaker who has also been implicated in the scandal, from the TPP's central committee.

Huang later brought a lawsuit on behalf of the TPP against Tuanmu for the alleged false accounting on Wednesday afternoon.

The prosecutors' action on Wednesday represents growing pressure on Ko, who is already under investigation by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office as a suspect in alleged corruption cases relating to Taipei's Core Pacific City mall redevelopment project and the Beitou Shilin Technology Park project dating back to his tenure as Taipei mayor.