Fugitive Liu wanted in Hong Kong

The Taipei office of the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation yesterday said that Hong Kong authorities recently declared Eddie Liu (劉偉杰), one of Taiwan's ten most wanted fugitives, an economic criminal. Liu is wanted for alleged money laundering using his accounts at Hong Kong banks.

According to a senior special agent at the bureau, Liu was wanted by Hong Kong justice officials because he allegedly wired money that he stole from the Taipei law firm where he worked from his Hong Kong accounts to his bank accounts in Shanghai. However, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office denied that they have received any such information from Hong Kong. Although the theft was reported in Taiwan, a Hong Kong court summoned Liu and, when he did not comply to the summons, declared him a wanted criminal.

Taiwan's law enforcement officials are still hoping to hear from the Chinese police or related offices regarding their search for Liu.

"We have asked for assistance through the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait but we had no response from them [Chinese officials] up to now," said a senior special agent at the Bureau of Investigation, who wished to remain anonymous.

"Investigations showed that Liu is in Shanghai. But we need Chinese law enforcement officers' help to locate and find him," the agent said.

However, since Hong Kong authorities have reported Liu as a wanted fugitive to the Chinese justice and law enforcement offices, the Chinese police are expected to begin their search for Liu soon.

"Our investigations showed that Liu might have used a fake passport with a fake name to enter China. But it is still possible to locate him anyway," the agent said.

Liu's case hit the headlines on Oct. 15 last year when Lee and Li Attorneys-at-Law, one of the major law firms in Taiwan, held a press conference to announce that one of its senior legal assistants, the 41-year-old Liu, had allegedly embezz-led NT$3 billion and disappeared in August.

The money Liu stole was actually the firm's fees for handling a share sale on behalf of one of its clients -- the California-based SanDisk Corp, the world's biggest maker of flash-memory cards used in digital cameras and music players.

Liu was authorized to handle SanDisk's investments in Taiwan's stock market but he allegedly sold shares without authorization and pocketed the proceeds.

Prosecutors listed Liu as a wanted person on Oct. 17. They later discovered, however, that Liu had fled to Hong Kong on Oct. 9 after reportedly converting the stolen funds into diamonds. Investigators have also come to believe that Liu's father, Liu Jung-hsien (劉榮顯), a suspect in a financial fraud case and sought by the Taipei District Court since 1993, may be the mastermind behind the crime.