An official from PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) was detained yesterday after he was questioned overnight by investigators on suspicion of insider trading.
The company’s shares closed down 1.92 percent, underperforming the broader market’s 0.49 percent decline.
The Acer official was identified as Henry Wang (汪島雄), the company’s acting spokesman, according to the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office.
A stockbroker named Lo Fang-ju (羅芳汝), who is not employed by Acer, was also taken into custody after an initial investigation.
Prosecutors said Wang and Lo were detained to prevent any possibility of collusion with other suspects.
“The two were held on suspicions of insider trading, and if released, they might collude [on their statements] and destroy evidence,” New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office Chief Prosecutor Feng Cheng (馮成) said.
The other seven, including Acer human resources manager Chen Chiung-yuan (陳炯淵), were released on bail of between NT$50,000 and NT$400,000 (between US$1,640 and US$13,140), he said.
On Tuesday, prosecutors and investigators raided 14 different locations, including Acer’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), following allegations that a stockbroker responsible for Acer’s stock investment acted on her client’s instructions to sell shares ahead of major announcements.
Chinese-language media said the alleged insider trading might have taken place on Nov. 5 last year after the company reported a worse-than-expected third-quarter loss of NT$13.1 billion last year.
The trading also happened shortly before then-chairman and chief executive officer Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) announced his resignation that day.
Acer shares fell to a 12-year low on Nov. 6 last year.
The Financial Supervisory Commission referred stock trading irregularities before the company’s announcement to investigators, New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Lee Hai-lung (李海龍) said.
Lee said these suspects made a profit of about NT$5 million using the information.
If the shares were traded with knowledge of the company’s losses and change in management, it would constitute a violation of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).
The company officials involved knew about Acer’s pending loss and sold personal shareholdings before it was made public, Lee said.
Authorities have not identified any fault on the part of Acer, he added.
If convicted, the suspects could be jailed for a maximum of 10 years and fined as much as NT$200 million, he said.
Acer shares ended at NT$17.85 yesterday, having dropped 2.46 percent since the beginning of the year and 33.64 percent over the past 12 months, according to data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Once the world’s second-largest PC maker, Acer reported a record loss of NT$20.58 billion last year, the third consecutive unprofitable year following losses of NT$2.91 billion in 2012 and NT$6.6 billion in 2011.
The probe comes as Acer chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) and president and CEO Jason Chen (陳俊聖) implement a plan to rebuild the company into a hardware, software and services provider, while senior executives have taken voluntary salary cuts of 30 percent since January as the company struggles financially.
In an open letter made public yesterday, Shih apologized for disappointing shareholders and investors in light of the insider trading allegations.
However, he told shareholders that Acer is heading in the right direction, which requires their patience to see the firm’s transformation come to fruition.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last