Taipei prosecutors indicted a KMT lawmaker yesterday on check fraud charges and alleged he used his position to cover up the crime.
Prosecutors yesterday asked that Liao Hwu-peng (
PHOTO: CHU YU-PIN, TAIPEI TIMESN
Investigators say Liao wrote checks after being barred from doing so, and then told banking officials to alter the documents so the checks would be cleared.
On Aug. 11 last year, the Taipei Clearing House declared Liao's account to be "dishonored" after three of his checks had bounced.
The designation meant that Liao was barred from writing new checks and any items dated after Aug. 11 wouldn't be cleared.
But prosecutors say the lawmaker kept on writing checks after that date.
They say he threatened Pai Hui-hsiung (
In all, 81 checks worth more than NT$19.5 million were involved.
Liao yesterday said he was innocent of the charges and said the Bank of Taiwan should shoulder the blame.
The lawmaker said the bank on Sept. 14 of last year had informed him that his account had been declared a "dishonored" one. He said the bank had asked him to change the dates on items written after Aug. 11 so they would be cleared.
"So I gave them my stamp to do it," Liao said.
The lawmaker said he didn't understand what all the fuss was about, as the checks he wrote after Aug. 11 were paid.
"The checks I wrote after Aug. 11 were all cashed. I don't understand why the prosecutors want to indict me," he said.
Prosecutor Liu Cheng-wu (
Liu also said that Liao had asked his assistant, Soong Chun-lien (宋春蓮), to help.
"But he did it by himself as well," the prosecutor said. "Among the 81 checks, two of them were altered by Liao himself. It's quite ridiculous for him to do this as a lawmaker, especially when the bank is located inside the Legislative Yuan [building]."
In addition to Liao, prosecutors have also asked that Soong be sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, Pai to three years and Chao to two years.
Prosecutors have also asked that Hsu Man-tzu (
Last February, Liao was indicted for allegedly counterfeiting the stock certificates of Chimei Electronics and selling them to a man for NT$106 million. The case is still pending.
Liao has served six terms in the legislature, but he decided not to run in the Dec. 1 election after the KMT implemented more stringent rules on who could run under the party's banner.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS