Lo Fu-chu cancels business jaunt

A lawyer for indicted former independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) said yesterday that Lo has canceled a planned business trip to Hong Kong despite the conditional granting by the Taipei District Court of the right to apply to prosecutors for a temporary lifting of an injunction barring him from traveling overseas.

But prosecutors said yesterday that they had received no such application and that the injunction therefore remained effective.

Chuang Hsiu-ming (莊秀銘), Lo's lawyer, said yesterday that Lo still planned to visit Hong Kong for private business purposes and had purchased five airline tickets for the trip, but that he had decided to cancel the reservations because of important business in Taipei.

"He has private business to deal with in Taipei so he will not leave for Hong Kong anytime soon," said Chuang at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office after attending a hearing for a separate client yesterday. "We have purchased five tickets, however, and will plan another trip to Hong Kong when necessary."

Lo was barred from traveling abroad when he was indicted on charges of corruption, fraud, breach of trust, usury, forging documents and misappropriation of funds on June 7 last year. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year sentence. No hearings have yet been held in the case, which is pending at Taipei District Court.

On Jan. 7 this year, the court granted Lo's application for a temporary lift on his ban from Jan. 22 to Jan. 31 which allows him to go to Hong Kong under certain conditions, including that Lo must submit to the court a detailed itinerary, copies of his tickets, references from at least two lawyers and a NT$5 million deposit. In addition, Lo must be accompanied by at least two lawyers throughout the trip.

However, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office said that the ban on Lo is still effective and he is not allowed to leave the country without a permit.

"He has to ask us, with the court's authorization, for permission to lift the ban. The court did authorize. However, he did not come to us for the request, so, the ban on him is still valid," said Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), spokesman for the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.

According to Taipei prosecutors' indictment, Lo illegally embezzled and pocketed more than NT$1.3 billion by taking advantage of his position as a lawmaker and worked alongside local gangsters to blackmail businesspeople in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. In addition, Lo is suspected of tax evasion.