FSC official meets UMC chairman Robert Tsao

A senior Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) official confirmed yesterday that it has summoned United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠) for questioning.

The commission wants Tsao to explain how UMC was offered a 15 percent stake in He Jian Technology (Suzhou) Co (和艦) in exchange for "past assistance."

"A colleague at the commission met Tsao earlier today," commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (龔照勝) said in response to questions at the legislature's Finance Committee yesterday.

Kong declined to identify the official, saying only that the official's rank was senior enough to represent the commission.

Kong did not elaborate on the details of the meeting with Tsao.

The UMC boss returned from an overseas trip late on Sunday.

Tsao had left the country on March 22 after publishing an announcement on March 21 that He Jian offered UMC a 15-percent stake in the company worth US$110 million.

INVESTMENT COMMISSION INTERESTED

But Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said later yesterday that the ministry's Investment Commission was also investigating UMC's alleged illegal investments in China and had not ruled out summoning Tsao.

Kong and other commission officials were grilled yesterday by 17 ruling and opposition party lawmakers -- not only in relation to the UMC case, but also the commission's handling of other corporate scandals over the past year, including Procomp Informatics Co (博達科技).

Procomp, which makes chips for communications and networking equipment, filed a restructuring application in June last year on the eve of a NT$2.98 billion bond payment default.

Top management at the company were found later to have illegally manipulated the company's stock, with chairwoman Sophie Yeh (葉素菲) sentenced to 20 years in jail last October.

LAWMAKERS DEMAND

Lawmakers yesterday demanded that the FSC provide the legislature with a detailed report within two weeks on three seperate issues. They are UMC's allegedly unlawful investment in He Jian, last month's planned three-way merger of China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) and suspected insider trading by China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) last week.