Insider trading suspect detained

Lin Ming-da (林明達), the prime suspect in a case of alleged insider trading involving shares of Power Quotient International Co (勁永國際), was taken into custody yesterday, the Taipei District Court said yesterday.

Taipei District Court Spokesman Huang Jiunn-ming (黃俊明), said that Lin denied any wrongdoing during a four-hour hearing, saying that what he had done was purely short-selling of a stock investment.

Lin on Tuesday told a press conference that prosecutors in charge of the case had forced him to make a false confession that he had colluded with Lee Chin-cheng (李進誠), the director-general of the Financial Supervisory Commission's Examination Bureau.

But according to Huang, Lin yesterday denied saying this, and added that his remarks during the press conference had been misinterpreted by the news media.

Even so, prosecutors charged Lin, 42, with being involved in insider trading, in violation of the Securities and Exchange Law (證券交易法).

Prosecutors asked the court to take him into custody amid concerns that he might flee the country or destroy evidence, according to Huang.

During the hearing, prosecutors showed Lin evidence that he had conducted several phone calls and dined with Lee between March and May, Huang said.

In response to this latest development involving one of its senior officials, the commission yesterday simply said, "no comment," during a regular press briefing.

The commission also denied a media report that an "explosive" number of economic crimes, including illegal insider stock trading and misappropriation of corporate funds, will be exposed soon.

"What the newspaper said just concerns old cases that have been shelved in the prosecutors' offices for a long time," said Lu Daung-yen (呂東英), vice chairman of Financial Supervisory Commission.

Citing the commission's statistics, Lu said it had submitted 407 cases of alleged financial offenses to prosecutors between 1998 and February. Only 189 of the cases made it to court, however, and just 63 resulted in convictions, a very low conviction ratio.

"We will fully support prosecutors' investigations into possible insider trading and embezzlement cases ... and hope to see the Power Quotient case be further clarified sometime this month," Lu said.

The Ministry of Justice yesterday also denied the report about a large number of economic crimes.

"The media report was not correct," Vice Minister of Justice Tang Chin-chuan (湯金全) said at a news conference.

Tang said the commission has received information from private citizens about several cases allegedly involving insider trading and illegal conversion of corporate funds.

He said the Taipei Prosecutor's Office has assigned a chief prosecutor to assist the commission in investigating these cases.