Prosecutors yesterday detained the personal financial manager of former independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (
Lin Chin-yuan (林錦源), who is also the vice general manager of Tashin Securities (大信證券), which Lo owns, turned himself in to the Bureau of Investigation's Taipei office on Friday morning.
But prosecutors said they did not trust Lin, who was put on the most-wanted list on Jan. 25.
"He attempted to go abroad on Jan. 8 even though prosecutors had restricted his travel, requiring him to stay in Taiwan and report to prosecutors immediately whenever he is summoned," said Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), a spokesman for the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.
"We have good reason to believe that he might have tried to run again, so we decided to detain him."
Prosecutors from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office and the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office interviewed Lin, who was accompanied by his lawyer Chang Chuan (
After the interview, prosecutors sent a request, which was approved, to the Taipei District Court to detain Lin at the Taipei Detention House.
Lin has worked for Lo for more than a decade and also handles the Lo family's finances.
Lo, who is also the spiritual leader of the Tiendaomeng gang, was arrested on Feb. 1 on charges of fraud, breach of trust and usury.
Lin, as Lo's financial manager, has been charged with the same offenses.
"Lin denied all the charges against him during the interview, including fraud, breach of trust and usury." Chen said.
"However, we deemed his testimony to be untrustworthy and prosecutors believe he exchanged information with other suspects before he turned himself in."
Prosecutors said informants had warned them that gang members were after Lin and might "do something" to him.
As a result, prosecutors urged Lin to testify against Lo when the case goes to trial in exchange for reducing Lin's charges.
However, Lin refused the offer, saying no one had threatened him, the prosecutors said.
RSS