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.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San