The chairman of one of Taiwan’s largest banks, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), was released early yesterday after being questioned by the Supreme Prosecutors Office for suspected involvement in the alleged corruption scandal of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Thomas Wu (吳東亮), chairman of Taishin, was suspected of paying a substantial sum of money as bribery to former president Chen’s wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), as the private bank was planning to invest in the state-owned Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行) when the government was implementing a second phase of financial reforms and encouraging mergers of monetary institutions.
Wu was called in for questioning by the Special Investigative Division of the prosecutors’ office after dozens of investigators made surprise raids at Taishin bank’s headquarters and Wu’s residence in Taipei on Friday afternoon upon the closing of the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Four others suspected of involvement in the case were taken to the prosecutor’ office for questioning.
Shares of Taishin Financial slid 6.99 percent to NT$10.65 (US$0.33) yesterday, the lowest since May 19.
Local media have reported that in the former first lady’s statement to the Special Investigative Division last February, Wu Shu-jen claimed that the hundreds of millions she had deposited at the safe of Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) since 2006 were contributed by 20 executives of Taiwanese banks, high-tech firms and media organizations, among which NT$100 million was paid by Thomas Wu.
Taishin holds a 22.5 percent stake in Chang Hwa Bank and is its largest shareholder.
Taishin has been targeted by investigators since the bank was mentioned in the Cabinet’s “second-phase monetary reform review report” released last February.
The report indicated that when Taishin was in the process of acquiring special shares of Chang Hwa Bank, its debt ratio was relatively high.
Some financial specialists also said it did not make sense for Chang Hwa to be merged with Taishin because Chang Hwa was in good financial health at the time of the proposed merger, whereas Taishin was not, meaning that Taishin was in no position to buy the state-owned financial institution.
Before Friday’s questioning, the Taishin chairman had twice been summoned by the investigators as a witness in the money laundering and bribery cases involving the former first family.
He has claimed that Taishin was helping the government settle problems when it acquired shares of Chang Hwa, and had abided by legal procedures.
Thomas Wu had also denied involvement in the money laundering or bribery case.
In a similar case, the Special Investigative Division in December indicted executives of Cathay United Bank and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), which were accused of bribing the former first lady in order to “smooth” government requirements to merge with Fuhwa Financial Holding Co (復華金控).
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS