The Taipei District Court yesterday sentenced Lee Chin-chen (
"As an official in charge of monitoring the nation's finances and a former prosecutor, Lee did not behave normally, and used his office to commit a crime," Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (
"Lee was so corrupt," he said.
Lee released a statement later in the day saying that he was shocked and disappointed by the 10-year sentence.
"I will definitely appeal the sentence and proclaim my innocence after receiving the verdict," Lee said.
The court found Lee guilty of violating the Statute for the Punishment of Corruption (
The court ruling said Lee leaked confidential information about a government probe into Power Quotient International Co (PQI) to Lin Ming-da (林明達), an investor, who profited from the information.
Taipei prosecutors launched an investigation into PQI in January last year, after the firm posted revenue figures for 2004, which officials found suspicious. They began probing Lee's actions in March last year after PQI's shares plummeted on the stock exchange.
An investigation found that Lee told Lin on March 11 that PQI's headquarters would be raided soon. Lin immediately borrowed a substantial amount of money to short-sell PQI.
On March 15, Lee told a reporter surnamed Ko from the Chinese-language United Daily News that PQI's headquarters would be searched in a day or two. Ko's story, which ran the next day, was credited with sending PQI's share price down.
Lin was also sentenced yesterday to two years in prison, but the court gave him a five-year probation. He was also fined NT$20 million (US$623,900).
Lin, two others investors -- Chen Chun-chi (
The five -- who became known in the media as the "vultures" -- made about NT$15 million from trading PQI's shares based on their inside information.
In his statement, Lee said there was no proof of the corruption allegations against him, including his alleged knowledge of the vultures' shortselling of PQI shares, and his alleged leak of confidential information to the press and investors.
He said the court had ignored his strong counter-evidence and made its ruling out of prejudice.
Meanwhile, the FSC said it would respect the court's decision.
In other developments, Straits Exchange Foundation Vice Chairman Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏) was indicted yesterday on charges of breach of trust and violating the Commercial Accounting Law (
Chang, once an influential figure in the Democratic Progressive Party, is suspected of embezzling money from Formosa Telecommunication Investment Co when he served as its chairman and chief executive officer. The prosecutors asked the court to sentence Chang and his girlfriend Lin Hui-chen (林慧珍) to seven- and six-year jail terms, respectively.
A total of 14 people have been charged in the case.
Additional reporting by Amber Chung
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