Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom Co (
The company will go to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office today to launch litigation against Gary Wang (王令麟), Wang You-theng (王又曾) and Wang Chin She-ying (王金世英) for breach of trust, said Lee E-hua (李宜樺), public relations director of Asia Pacific Broadband, at a press conference.
A new management team that includes Lee and acting chairman Springfield Lai (
The telecom firm comes under the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (
Lee said that the Wangs had embezzled funds through the sale of Asia Pacific Broadband's cable modem business to Tung Ho Multimedia Co (東禾媒體), as well as the sale of Eastern Multimedia Co (東森媒體科技) to the Carlyle Group.
The sale of the cable modem division to Tung Ho failed to get approval from the company's shareholders and its board of directors, with the final price fixed at NT$2.64 billion (US$79.5 million) -- a NT$610 million shortfall initially agreed to by the board.
"Cable modems were a very important business to the company and it shouldn't have been sold," Lee said.
She said the cable modem division was the second-most lucrative branch of Asia Pacific Broadband, accounting for some 20 percent of total sales and 18 percent of gross margins each year.
By bundling in the lucrative cable modem business, the Wangs then sold Eastern Multimedia, which owned Tung Ho, to the Carlyle Group in July last year for NT$47.6 billion, she said.
The takeover price of Eastern Multimedia was NT$5.22 billion more than the
original price assessed by accounting firm, Lee said.
“We believe the Wangs pocketed the money through these sales,” Lee said.
But Gary Wang denied the allegations in a statement yesterday, saying that
all transactions had been recorded in official documents and that he would
sue the new management of Asia Pacific Broadband.
The fixed-line provider is scheduled to hold an annual shareholder's meeting
next Monday, aiming to revamp the board previously controlled by the Wang
family, which has strongly opposed introducing new investors and a corporate
overhaul.
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