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Walter Lin forced out of Waterland chairmanship

The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday announced it would remove Walter Lin (林華德) as chairman of Waterland Financial Holding Co (國票金控) over suspected involvement in the Procomp Informatics Co (博達科技) scandal.

The order will take effect from today after the official notice is sent to Waterland.

Lin is the husband of former Procomp chairwoman Sophie Yeh (葉素菲), who was indicted for embezzling NT$7 billion (US$225 million) from Procomp and released last month on bail of NT$80 million after seven months in detention. It was the nation's second-highest bail figure on record.

"We discovered a series of abnormal inflows of capital into Lin's account worth NT$195 million from Yeh's [account] from March 2002, and Lin failed to give a credible explanation for the transfers," commission vice chairman Lu Daung-yen (呂東英) said at a press conference last night.

Lu said the commission believed that the NT$80 million bail furnished by Lin also came from these funds, and he accused Lin of intending to hide the sources of the money.

"[Lin's] behavior has violated the appropriate regulations' requirements for integrity and honesty in a person in charge of financial holdings," Lu said.

The issue of whether Lin had laundered money for Yeh's benefit would be left for prosecutors to investigate, he said.

Lin will also lose his board directorship in Waterland and the chairmanship of Waterland's International Bills Finance Corp (國際票券), according to the commission.

The commission made the unanimous decision at a provisional commission meeting yesterday following its Examination Bureau's questioning of Lin at the end of last month.

Waterland is due to hold a general meeting beginning June 29 to select new directors. With Lin involved in the management dispute at Waterland, the financial regulator's move has made it impossible to safeguard his position in the face of rebel shareholders.
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