Rabobank will cooperate in Infodisc investigation

Rabobank NV, an international corporate and investment bank and the third-largest in the Netherlands, has agreed to cooperate with Taiwan's financial regulators during investigations into two possible corporate frauds, a Chinese-language business daily reported yesterday, citing Roel van Veggel, director of external communication of the Dutch bank.

The bank said it is aware of the fact that its name has been connected to both Infodisc Technology Co and Procomp Informatics Co by the Taiwanese press, but noted that it had not received any official request for assistance yet, the paper quoted van Veggel as saying.

"It is against the bank's policy and local bank secrecy regulations to comment on individual client relationships," van Veggel said in a statement distributed to the paper.

"We are currently further investigating the matter. As always, we are willing to fully cooperate with regulatory bodies in their investigations within the framework of applicable law and regulations," he said.

Infodisc, a CD and DVD maker, was investigated after the company's former chairman, David Lu (呂學仁), failed to adequately explain a suspicious multi-million dollar cash transaction made through Rabobank's Singapore branch in late June.

Infodisc was found to have remitted US$77.75 million (NT$2.62 billion) from Rabobank's Singapore branch on June 30, with which the company claimed it had bought a 15-percent stake in the Gold Target Fund, a start-up company for movie production and distribution. However, the Cayman Islands registered fund was not formally established until July 19.

Stock regulators banned Infodisc from trading its shares on margin as of Wednesday, after the company failed to present concrete proof of the transaction on Monday, as required by the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TSE).

Also on Wednesday, the TSE ousted Procomp from the nation's main bourse after the chipmaker failed to explain its default on a NT$2.98 billion bond in June, and disclose the whereabouts of NT$6.3 billion in cash it remitted to a Rabobank account in Singapore. Procomp chairwoman Sophia Yeh (葉素菲) was detained in late June on fraud charges.

Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (龔照勝) has asked Rabobank to cooperate in the probes, and will formally bring up the issue later this month at an international banking conference in Madrid, Spain.

"I will bring up the issue in the International Conference of Banking Supervisors taking place on Sept. 20 for their attention and assistance in passing on the information to the authority governing the branch," Kong told a press briefing on Monday.