Print

Mail

wiki links

FSC investigating Deutsche Bank role in Rebar scandal

The Financial Supervisory Commission confirmed yesterday that it is in the process of conducting an ad hoc inspection of Deutsche Bank AG's Taipei branch to investigate the German lender's alleged role in the Rebar Asia Pacific Group's (力霸亞太企業集團) NT$73 billion (US$2.2 billion) embezzlement scandal.

"We are doing a three-day special inspection of the bank, which started on Monday, to probe into an alleged questionable transaction in response to a letter of accusation we received," the commission's spokesperson, Susan Chang (張秀蓮), told a press conference yesterday.

The investigation is focusing on the terms and interest rates of the deal to see if they are in line with common practice in the market and identify any supportive reasons if they are not, Chang said.

In response to reporters questions, Chang declined to comment on any possible irregularities, such as money laundering, that the German bank may have been involved in

Last Friday, two Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers accused Deutsche Bank's Taipei branch of assisting fugitive Wang You-theng's (王又曾) son to embezzle assets by arranging a questionable loan of NT$6.8 billion to Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications Inc (亞太行動寬頻), a subsidiary of the scandal-ridden Rebar Asia Pacific Group.

In response, Deutsche Bank said in a statement released late on Monday that "following recent uninformed and false reports we welcome the FSC review and will be giving them every assistance."
This story has been viewed 2060 times.