A former Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) executive has become the second Hon Hai ex-worker ordered held by a local court in relation to a bribery investigation into the firm’s suppliers, after his release on bail was overturned.
Deng Chih-hsien (鄧志賢), a former secretary-general of a Hon Hai surface-mount technology (SMT) committee responsible for the main procurements for the company and its subsidiaries, was detained on Tuesday on the Taipei District Court’s orders.
The former executive had been released on NT$3 million (US$100,000) bail on Wednesday last week, but prosecutors successfully appealed his release and he can now be jailed for as long as two months, Huang Mou-hsin (黃謀信), deputy chief prosecutor at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, said by telephone yesterday.
Investigators can seek a further two-month extension on Deng’s detention before filing any charges, Huang added.
Deng joins former Hon Hai deputy general manager Liao Wan-cheng (廖萬城) and Hon Hai supplier Hau Shi-kung (郝旭光), who have been detained since Wednesday last week.
Two more ex-Hon Hai employees accused of taking bribes were also released on bail last week: former Hon Hai engineering department manager Yu Chi-an (游吉安), who was released on NT$2 million bail, and senior manager Chen Chih-chuan (陳志釧), who paid a NT$1 million bail.
The suspects are facing special breach of trust charges under the Securities Exchange Act (證券交易法), prosecutors said.
Chinese authorities arrested Deng in September 2012 in Shenzhen, China, on suspicion of accepting bribes from suppliers, local media reported. Deng was in custody for seven months in China before returning to Taiwan last year, reports said.
Last week, the Chinese-language Next Magazine reported that suppliers allegedly paid more than NT$15 billion in bribes to the members of the Hon Hai SMT committee over five years, with Liao allegedly pocketing more than NT$50 million of that sum.
Hon Hai, which assembles iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc, last week said it is cooperating in the probe being conducted by Taiwanese authorities into the allegations.
Hon Hai said in a statement that it discovered breaches to its code of conduct in an internal investigation, adding that those found guilty of illegal acts should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), who is advocating tougher sentences in cases of corporate corruption, said by telephone that penalties in the case may be light unless the corruption can be proved to have substantially damaged the company.
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