The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a guilty verdict by the Taiwan High Court against Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) for insider trading and sentenced him to eight months in prison, bringing to a close a legal battle that lasted for 14 years.
The Ministry of the Interior last night relieved Fu of his duties, effective immediately.
Fu was accused in 2005 of breaching the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) by manipulating the stock price of Hold-Key Electric Wire & Cable Co Ltd (合機電線電纜) through insider trading.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Fu, then a People First Party legistlator, was approached by Hold-Key general manager Yang Kai-ti (楊愷悌) and deputy general manager Yu Su-yuan (余素緣), who offered him 20 million company shares at NT$15 per share, the Supreme Court ruling said.
Hold-Key had just won a bid to build an electric supply system for state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電), and Yang and Yu saw it as an opportunity to boost the company’s stock price, it said.
Fu brought in friends and stock market analyst Chang Shih-chieh (張世傑), who convinced people that the stock was a good investment, the ruling said.
The Hold-Key stock price soared from NT$15 per share in October 2003 to NT$47 per share in January 2004, earning Fu and the others a total of NT$96 million (US$3.11 million at the current exchange rate) in illicit gains, it added.
Fu was originally sentenced to one year and four months in prison by the second appellate court, but his jail term was reduced to eight months, as the case was eligible for a sentence reduction according to the Criminal Speedy Trial Act (刑事妥速審判法), yesterday’s ruling said.
The Hualien County District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it had received a notice from the Supreme Court to impose travel restrictions on Fu and had instructed harbor and airport authorities to deny Fu passage should he try to leave the nation.
Ministry of the Interior Department of Civil Affairs Director Lin Ching-chi (林清淇) said that Fu had been dismissed as county commissioner per Article 79 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法).
The Executive Yuan would be notified of the need to appoint an acting commissioner, as the regulations stipulate that the deputy commissioner is to be relieved of their duties as well, Lin said.
Given the timing of the Supreme Court’s announcement, the dismissal paperwork would take some time, Lin added.
While the ministry holds the right to nominate a replacement, the Executive Yuan holds the deciding vote, Lin said.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said the ministry had yet to nominate anyone for acting commissioner.
“The ministry must receive the court ruling before we can have the Executive Yuan approve any candidates,” Hsu said.
The acting commissioner would serve until Dec. 25 when the winner of the Nov. 24 Hualien commissioner race would assume office, Lin said.
Additional reporting by CNA
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a