Hui Hsiung (熊暉), chief executive of Qisda Corp (佳世達), must remain in the US to face price-fixing charges and was denied a travel pass to Taiwan to attend a quarterly investor conference in Taipei.
US District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco on Tuesday denied Hsiung’s request for the two-day pass. Hsiung, a former executive at AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), Taiwan’s second-largest flat-screen maker, along with AUO chief executive Chen Lai-juh (陳來助) and vice chairman Chen Hsuan-bin (陳炫彬), were barred from leaving the US pending a trial for price fixing in the flat-panel display industry.
The company has repeatedly denied the accusations and vowed to fight the charges.
At the court hearing, Illston said she denied Hsiung’s request, and has denied other similar requests in the case, because the US has no extradition treaty with Taiwan.
“I’m certain that the company will be able to explain that it’s not his choice to not be there,” Illston said.
Hsiung’s lawyer, Brian Berson, argued his client had posted a US$10 million bail bond and that he was expected to appear in person at the conference, a “specific, identifiable, verifiable event we want him to attend.”
The company, its employees and shareholders are in a precarious position, he argued, and “will slip if he’s not able to attend personally.”
Niall Lynch, the assistant chief for the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division in San Francisco, argued Hsiung is a greater flight risk now because “he knows he’ll be stuck here pending trial.”
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