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Court clears Hsu and convicts Lin in Sogo lawsuit

“Far Eastern Group ... took control of most of Sogo’s shares and obtained ownership of Sogo, which is a legal and normal business practice in the eyes of the law.”

— Taipei District Court ruling

Far Eastern Group chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) was acquitted yesterday in the Sogo voucher scandal, while former Waterland Financial Holding Co chairman Walter Lin (林華德) was sentenced to two years in prison.

Hsu, Lin, former Pacific Distribution Investment Co chairman Lee Heng-lung (李恆隆) and three officials from Lin and Hsu’s companies were indicted for forgery and breach of trust by Taipei prosecutors in 2006 for their roles in the management takeover of the Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) in September 2002.

Lin was the only defendant found guilty by the Taipei District Court yesterday, while Lee’s case is still pending, along with other criminal cases involving Lee.

Former Sogo chairman Chang Chi-min (章啟明), who filed the lawsuit against Hsu, Lee and Lin, said he did not believe Hsu was innocent and would appeal the verdict to the Taiwan High Court.

“Far Eastern Group injected capital into one of Sogo’s subsidiary companies, Pacific Distribution Investment Co, and then took control of most of Sogo’s shares and obtained ownership of Sogo, which is a legal and normal business practice in the eyes of the law,” the district court ruling said.

The court said, however, that Lin, who agreed to help Chang secure capital for Sogo when it was experiencing financial difficulties, instead secretly helped Hsu gain ownership of the store, which violated breach of trust.

Hsu acquired ownership of Sogo in 2004.

The court also said that while Hsu and other businessmen had visited former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) during the battle for ownership of Sogo, she did not help any party in the battle for control.

Prosecutors believed that Lee had distributed NT$14.82 million [US$447,320] in Pacific Sogo Department Store vouchers, with the first family indirectly receiving NT$277,000 in vouchers.

Prosecutors found no evidence, however, that Wu had received the vouchers in return for helping secure ownership of the department store.

Prosecutors said Wu had received her vouchers from the first family’s former doctor, Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥).

However, the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutor Office’s is investigating whether Far Eastern deposited US$11.5 million into an overseas account held by former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) family in exchange for help securing ownership of Pacific Sogo.

Hsu said on Wednesday that the company had not bribed the Chen family to gain control of a Chinese subsidiary of Pacific Sogo.
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