Candy Tang (唐雅君), founder of the Alexander Group (亞力山大集團), said yesterday she was shocked at her indictment for fraud and breach of trust, while the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said it had gathered proof to back its claims.
"The failure of the Alexander Group was a result of mismanagement and not fraud and breach of trust," Tang said. "Have I tried to flee the country or avoid facing the problem since the company closed down on Dec. 10? Have you ever seen a fraudster like me?"
"The amount of money generated by selling Alexander's shares in China all went into supporting [the company's] operating needs," Tang said. "What's more, I did not pocket the membership fees that the company received."
Tang made the remarks during a media briefing yesterday after she and her sister, Tang Hsin-ru (
The prosecutors said a total of 8,937 members were deceived into joining Alexander Health Clubs (亞力山大健康休閒俱樂部) after Aug. 1, when the Tang sisters already knew the company could not be revived. Alexander had accepted nearly NT$244 million (US$7.6 million) in new membership fees since then.
"The Tang sisters should have discontinued their operations, or held a meeting with their employees and members to discuss possible solutions, instead of continuing to recruit new members, when they knew on Aug.1 that the company's financial difficulties could not be solved," Huang Mou-hsin (黃謀信), head prosecutor of the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, said yesterday in a telephone interview.
Tang said she sold shares in Alexander Group's China operations to Chen Wu-kang (
Huang said Tang, who only sold 51 percent of Alexander's shares in China, did remit the money to Alexander's bank accounts, but a majority of that amount was used to pay back the money Tang owed loan sharks.
Meanwhile, Eric Tsai (蔡朝安), a lawyer representing Tang, said by telephone yesterday: "I do not want to make any comments before I see the indictment document, but I respect the prosecutors' decision."
Tang said the company had also signed letters of intent with a number of companies to take over three of its fitness centers outside Taipei, after Alexander signed a preliminary agreement with Eleeza International Inc (宜麗國際) on Tuesday for the takeover of eight outlets.
"We have signed letters of intent with firms that are interested in taking over Alexander's outlets in Hsinchu City, Taichung City and Tainan City," Tang said.
In addition, she said the "fee" that Eleeza mentioned on Tuesday, had been misinterpreted by some to mean it would re-charge Alexander's old members.
"The new company will charge Alexander's old members a small amount for cleaning fees if they choose to use our service, but not membership fees. However, the amount has not been determined as we still need to discuss it with the Consumers' Foundation (消基會)," Lee Chung-teh (李宗德), a partner at Lee, Tsai and Partners, which is representing Alexander, said by telephone yesterday.
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