KMT Legislator Gary Wang (
Eleven defendants were also called at the committal proceedings yesterday to state whether they had been involved in the multi-million land deals -- one made in 1998 and the other in 1999.
Informed of the charges against him -- breach of trust, forgery and tampering with accounting records -- Wang, chairman of Eastern Multimedia and also chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce of the ROC (
The heir to the Rebar Group denied that he had inflated the price of a plot of land in Yangmei township, Taoyuan County, and obtained millions of dollars in under-the-table profits through the resale of the land, measured approximately 75,000m2.
Tsai, also appearing in yesterday's pre-trial procedure, denied the allegations that he had helped facilitate the land transactions between Wang's company and the state-run Taiwan Development and Trust Corp (TDTC,
Tsai, who plans to run in the December legislative elections, also urged the presiding judge Chu Meng-ping (
Chu did not respond to Tsai's request.
Prosecutors from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said that the case involved two stages: the sale and then the purchase of land in Yangmei. During each stage, under-the-table deals between the two sides inflated the price of the land to create illegal profits.
According to prosecutors, the listed Far Eastern Silo and Shipping (FESS,
The prosecution said that around NT$189 million of the price difference found its way through several dummy accounts into the accounts of another company owned by Wang. Chu's company also made NT$55 million from the artificially raised price.
The prosecution said this was a conspiracy in which Wang, Chu and two others squeezed money out of FESS and its shareholders. FESS intended to build a villa complex on the land, but due to the continuing decline in real estate prices, Wang then sought, after partially developing it, to sell it off for NT$1.8 billion to the state-run TDTC, also a listed company.
According to the indictment, Wang asked his close aide Chou Chi-peng (
Wang then asked Tsai Hau a board member of TDTC and Kao Chien-wen (高建文), the vice chairman, to push the board to make a decision to buy the land in November 1999. The move came hot on the heels of a report conducted by TDTC only a month earlier which concluded that such an investment was not worthwhile.
The prosecution has asked for a jail term of four years, 10 months for Wang and three years for Tsai. The trial is scheduled to begin on July 18.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
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