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Ex-BenQ chief Lee cleared of charges
ACQUITTALS:
Three other former employees of the electronics maker were found not guilty of charges that included insider trading, breach of trust and money laundering
By Chinmei Sung
BLOOMBERG
Thursday, Aug 27, 2009, Page 12
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Lee Kun-yao, chairman of AU Optronics Corp and former chairman of BenQ, gives a speech on July 13 at the Central Taiwan Science Park.
PHOTO: SU CHIN-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES
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Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀), chairman of AU Optronics Corp (友達) and Qisda Corp (佳世達), was acquitted on six charges including insider trading, stock manipulation and embezzlement after a two-year trial.
The executive of Qisda, the electronics maker formerly known as BenQ Corp (明基電通), was cleared by a Taoyuan District Court judge of using insider information to trade stock before the public disclosure of financial statements.
Lee, 56, was indicted two years ago for alleged crimes during his tenure as chairman of BenQ, which at the time was Taiwan’s biggest maker of mobile phones.
The company lost a total of NT$32.84 billion (US$997 million) in 2005 and 2006 after buying Siemens AG’s unprofitable handset unit.
“I’m pleased with the verdict,” Kevin Hsiao, Lee’s lawyer said outside the court yesterday.
Lee was also acquitted on charges of breach of trust, money laundering and forgery.
Qisda fell 4.9 percent to close at NT$13.55 in Taipei, before the ruling. The stock has more than doubled this year, after falling to a record low of NT$5.17 last November. AU declined 3 percent to NT$32.15 yesterday.
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“I’m pleased with the verdict.”
— Kevin Hsiao, attorney for former BenQ chairman Lee Kun-yao
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The two years of losses at BenQ, which became Taiwan’s biggest mobile-phone maker after buying Siemens AG’s handset unit in 2005, erased all the profit it had made since 1999.
The company filed for insolvency protection for its European business in September 2006 and sold its camera business, office buildings in Taiwan and part of its stake in AU Optronics.
Former BenQ president Sheaffer Lee (李錫華), ex-chief financial officer Eric Yu (游克用), Alex Liu (劉維宇), who was associate vice president in the finance department, and Liu Da-wen (劉大文), an accounting manager, were also acquitted by the court yesterday.
In May 2007, prosecutors alleged the BenQ executives used Creo Venture Corp, a Malaysian unit formed in 2002, to trade employees’ bonus shares.
The BenQ officials paid income taxes with proceeds from the transactions, prosecutors said.
Creo held 25.9 million BenQ shares as of March 20, 2006, making it the ninth-largest shareholder in BenQ, prosecutors said.
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