■ Fraud
`Shadow fixer' faints in court
A Japanese court yesterday handed six more years in prison to Ho Yong-chung, the culprit of one of the most notorious fraud cases during the "bubble economy," who collapsed on hearing the latest verdict. Ho, a 58-year-old Korean-Japanese, is already serving a separate seven-and-a-half-year term, was convicted of swindling promissory notes worth ¥17.9 billion (US$152 million) out of Tokyo-based trading firm Ishibashi Sangyo in 1996. Listening to the ruling, Ho drank water repeatedly and wiped sweat off his forehead before passing out on the defendant's seat, Jiji Press said. Ho also collapsed during a lower court hearing, the news agency said. Ho, nicknamed the "shadow fixer," is best known for the Itoman case from the early 1990s. He allegedly manipulated the management of the trading firm Itoman in the early 1990s to make it invest hundreds of billions of yen into trading art and developing golf courses. The Supreme Court sentenced him to seven years and six months in prison and a ¥500 million fine last October. In yesterday's ruling, presiding Judge Kenjiro Tao sentenced Ho to a further six years in prison, saying it was clear Ho "swindled the corporate bills."
■ Electronics
Toshiba profits shoot up
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba said yesterday its net profits had grown more than 13 times year-on-year in the third quarter to December as all segments of its business sharply improved. Net profit shot up to ¥21.9 billion (US$186.5 million) in the quarter from ¥1.6 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Operating profit soared to ¥63.7 billion from ¥900 million previously. "Toshiba group's businesses in the 2005 fiscal year to date are moving more strongly than originally anticipated on robust performances in electronic devices, particularly memories in the semiconductor business, and in social infrastructure, including the medical systems business," a statement said. The results followed an upbeat earnings report by rival Sony, which said last week it no longer anticipated losses for the year.
■ Photography
Fuji Photo to cut 5,000 jobs
Japan's Fuji Photo Film yesterday announced it will slash 5,000 jobs worldwide as part of structural reforms to keep profitable in the competitive business. The world's No. 2 photographic film maker will cut 1,000 jobs in Japan with the remaining 4,000 abroad by September, a company spokesman said. Fuji Film said the move was part of a reform plan to stay afloat. "The structural reforms include the reduction of approximately 5,000 people from the imaging solutions segment," which includes film production, a company statement said.
■ Telecoms
NTT DoCoMo profits drop
Japan's top mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo said yesterday its profits fell in the nine months to December in part due to falling handset sales. Net profit for the period slipped 31.7 percent to ¥516.4 billion (US$4.4 billion) year-on-year. Pretax profit eased 35.1 percent to ¥811.2 billion, on sales of ¥3.58 trillion, down 1.7 percent. The company said its revenue from mobile handset sales fell 13.6 percent year-on-year to ¥353.2 billion. The latest pretax profit fell because of larger gains seen a year ago, it added. Pretax profit also fell as NTT DoCoMo had gained more last year on selling shares of AT&T Wireless Service than its gains in the current period on sales of shares of Hutchison 3G UN Holdings and KPN Mobile NV.
■ Agriculture
More farms shut over dioxin
Belgian, Dutch and German authorities have closed almost 400 farms after traces of a carcinogenic chemical were found in animal feed, the European Commission said on Monday. EU spokesman Philip Tod said that tests were under way to check if the dioxins had made their way into the human food chain. The Belgian food safety agency said tainted hydrochloric acid used in the production of animal feed had caused the dioxin contamination. The fat is mixed with other feed for the livestock industry. The commission said Belgium and the Netherlands had acted quickly to shut down farms and determine where the contamination came from. Seven German farms had also been closed, it said. The Belgian food safety agency closed 300 more farms on Monday to add to the 96 pig and chicken farms it shut down last Friday.
■ Taxation
Tax forms confuse Britons
Some 3.8 million people in the UK are paying either too much tax or too little because they have trouble with the country's tax system, according to a study published on Monday. The Daily Telegraph newspaper said that the study revealed that taxpayers were confused about how to fill in complex forms in a system implemented by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. The study, compiled by financial experts for the Bow Group, a center-right think tank, also revealed that £9.6 billion (US$16.9 billion) owed in tax remained outstanding last April. Some 40 percent of it has been outstanding for more than 12 months, the report said.
■ Software
Gates unveils Turkey deal
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Monday announced details of a joint project to produce a Turkish-language version of Windows XP Starter Edition, an inexpensive, stripped-down version of the standard operating software aimed at schoolchildren. Speaking to journalists in Istanbul, Gates said that Microsoft would work with Turk Telecom and memory chip maker Intel to produce cheap computers under a program called "My First PC." Gates said the version would have safeguards to stop children from reaching "inappropriate sites." He did not detail the computers' retail price or say when they would be available.
■ Fraud
Shinwha settles US lawsuit
A South Korean company has agreed to pay US$1.2 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging that it falsified inspection records for fire alarms and safety equipment at US military installations throughout South Korea, officials said. Shinwha Electronics Inc of Seoul did not admit that any of the allegations were true under the terms of the settlement with the US government. As part of the settlement reached on Jan. 12, the company dismissed a US$407,564 claim against the US for nonpayment of a contract, US Attorney Edward Kubo Jr. said on Monday. The case was originally filed by a former Shinwha employee under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, according to Kubo, who said the unidentified former employee will receive US$240,000 of the settlement. The lawsuit accused Shinwha of not having trained fire-safety inspectors involved in carrying out the contract and falsifying that work was done on all US Army and Air Force bases in South Korea.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the