Jeffery Koo Jr's (
"If the executive of a financial institution refuses to answer a summons, the financial regulator may review whether that person is `fit and proper' for the job," Financial Supervisory Commission spokesperson Susan Chang (
Chang said the commission may discuss Koo's position if he does not return from the US to face prosecutors' questions on Nov. 22.
Seeking to question the executive over his company's troubled takeover of larger rival Mega Financial Holding Co (
According to the Code of Criminal Procedure (
In response, Chinatrust Financial said only that it was cooperating with investigators.
The company did not confirm that Koo would return to Taiwan after finishing his two-month Eisenhower Fellowship program in the US on Nov. 18.
The scandal-plagued financial group experienced a management shakeup after three of its high-ranking executives were detained last month.
In the latest twist to the saga, Lin Shiaw-pin (
Jason Wang (
Prosecutors said last month that their investigation might lead to a variety of charges, including breach of trust, illegal trading and violation of the Banking Law (
The commission has said that Chinatrust Financial invested in Mega Financial via structured notes transacted through its Hong Kong bank branch, but later transferred those notes to another Hong Kong-based company, Red Fire Development Ltd.
Red Fire later cashed in the structured notes, making a profit of more than US$31 million. The money was returned to Chinatrust at its board members' cost after intervention by the financial regulator.
Prosecutors suspect that Red Fire is a front company controlled by the Koo family and are trying to determine whether anyone has profited illegally from the Mega Financial deal.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”