The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said that it is investigating how a National Security Bureau employee was able to charge more than NT$6 million (US$193,025) to a single credit card to buy cigarettes in an alleged attempt to smuggle them into the nation.
Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲) allegedly tried to smuggle 9,200 cartons of cigarettes worth more than NT$6.45 million when he returned home with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) from a state visit to the Caribbean, New Power Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) has said.
Wu on July 8 placed five orders through China Airlines Ltd’s (CAL, 中華航空) online duty-free store and paid with a credit card, with the payments each amounting to NT$1.26 million, NT$2.92 million, NT$1.1 million, NT$1.06 million and NT$190,000, Huang said.
The allegation has raised questions over how Wu, a public servant, could have such a high creidt limit on his card and whether he took advantage of any loopholes in regulations.
As most banks set the credit limit to 22 times a cardholder’s monthly income, it is impossible for a bank to give Wu a credit limit higher than NT$6 million unless his monthly income is more than NT$300,000, the Chinese-language Ettoday.com reported.
Wu deposited NT$6 million into his account at the card-issuing bank before placing the order, which is why the bank approved the transaction, Ettoday reported, citing anonymous sources confirmed by Huang.
Cardholders can overpay to their banks in advance for large purchases, but they cannot overpay more than NT$500,000, the Banking Bureau told the Taipei Times, citing regulations against money-laundering.
If a client conducts transactions inconsistent with their incomes and cannot offer an explanation, banks should record the incident, save the related documents and notify the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau within 10 days, the bureau said.
The bureau declined to comment on reports that Wu was using a card issued by E.Sun Commercial Bank Ltd (玉山銀行), citing an ongoing investigation.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure