The nation's top stock regulator yesterday said that the lengthiness of the Financial Supervisory Commission's (FSC) investigation of a company's suspicious capital flows has made it much more difficult to catch the people suspected of insider trading.
Investigators are still probing the so-called "vultures" scandal surrounding the fraudulent transactions of Power Quotient International Co (
Wu Nai-jen (
"Capital flows are key evidence that can really prove whether illegal trading has taken place. But the FSC did not hand over its results until early March, and this has been dragging on too long," Wu said.
Wu made the remark on the sidelines of a meeting held by the legislature's financial committee yesterday morning to review the government's handling of the scandal.
He said that based on his experience, suspects in illegal trading cases can be hunted down quickly if the relevant information is gathered within several days.
"If the process is dragged out for two, three months or even longer, news is more likely to be leaked out" and evidence would be eliminated, Wu added.
Investigators suspect that high-level government officials are also involved in the infamous Power Quotient scandal, and the former director-general of the FSC's Examination Bureau, Lee Chin-chen (
Even Wu has been listed as a defendant in another insider trading case.
So far, only one prime suspect, Lin Ming-da (
Responding to lawmakers' questions, Wu said that he has neither short-sold company shares nor assisted "vultures" in profiting from the stock market.
FSC chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (
However, lawmakers slammed the commission and the Ministry of Justice for inefficient handling, saying the prolonged scandal has led to the public's diminished confidence in the government.
Citing the case of New York state's attorney-general Eliot Spitzer, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮) criticized the justice ministry's inability and urged it to extend investigations to high-level officials, including Kung and Wu.
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