State-funded Taiwan Asset Management Co (TAMC, 台灣金聯資產管理) chairman Chen Song-chu (陳松柱) was dismissed from office, effective immediately, for alleged inappropriate use of the company’s stock earnings, Deputy Minister of Finance William Tseng (曾銘宗) said yesterday.
The government has appointed TAMC president Chao Jung-fang (趙榮芳) to replace Chen temporarily, Tseng said, adding that the new chairmanship would be decided at a shareholders’ meeting in June.
Tseng’s remark came after Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) during a question-and-answer session at the legislature earlier yesterday that the government had “dealt with” the appointment of Chen.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) on Monday accused Chen and some of his employees of lining their own pockets, after he learned that Chen shared nearly NT$80 million (US$2.5 million) from the company’s stock investment profits last year with employees — including himself — in forms such as birthday bonuses and travel grants.
TAMC earned about NT$700 million to NT$800 million from stock investment last year, Chen said on Monday.
The company gave NT$70 million to NT$80 million of the profit to some 50 employees “in accordance with market rules,” Chen said.
“After initial investigation into the matter, the ministry considered that Chen’s use of the stock profits was inappropriate, thus rendering him unfit for his chairmanship position, ” Tseng said, adding that the ministry would continue to look into whether his deeds were illegal.
Because most of the shareholders of TAMC are state-owned banks, sharing stock investment profits with the company’s employees has caused public controversy as it might have affected taxpayers and state coffers.
Chen is accused of pocketing NT$20 million out of the NT$80 million, which was later confirmed by National Treasury Agency Director-General Hwang Ding-fang (黃定方).
However, TMAC said at a press conference yesterday that Chen shared the company’s stock earnings in accordance with the law and that it was not true that Chen alone took NT$20 million.
Tseng said that the ministry would recover the total amount of the distributed stock earnings, which was NT$77.44 million, and that it had already requested the company to investigate whether sharing the stock earnings with employees was reasonable.
“[Dismissal from office] was just the first step and the ministry will continue to look into Chen’s legal accountability for the matter,” Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said.
“We will do whatever is necessary,” he said.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday that only about 10 high-ranking employees received the stock investment profits, while both the Ministry of Finance and the company’s board were kept in the dark.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six