The Taipei District Court late on Friday night sentenced former Macoto Bank Hsiyuan Branch senior manager Lu Chien-yung (
"Lu did not regret what he did and did not tell the truth when he was interrogated. Obviously, he is not sorry at all so we decided to put him away for 12 years," said Taipei Judge Chen Jung-cheng (陳容正) in his verdict.
Lu's partner in crime, Lai Chin-liang (
The crime was committed on the night of Feb. 5 last year, when Lu walked into the bank's vault, stole NT$67 million and took off.
According to Lu's statement which was handed in with the verdict, he began to suffer debt problems in 1994. As of the time when he committed the crime last year, he had owed NT$25 million to "private banks," which made him decide to steal the money from the bank where he worked since he had access to the vault.
"Private banks," despite the sometimes huge amounts of money they deal with, operate outside the law. They are not registered with the Ministry of Finance, as most financial organizations are required to be, and provide high-interest loans to those who have been refused credit at a normal bank.
Due to their extra-legal nature, these "private banks" frequently hire gangsters to reclaim defaulted loans.
According to the bank's security video system, Lu walked into the vault alone, carried out five huge black bags with cash in them, put these bags in the trunk of his own vehicle parked in the basement of the building and took off.
Police investigations later showed that Lu went to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport directly after the crime and left for Hong Kong. However, immigration officials at the airport said that Lu did not carry any of the five huge black bags of cash when he went through security checks.
When Lu tried to come back to Taiwan without any authorization in July last year, his attempt was discovered by the Chinese police and the Chinese authorities decided to deport him back to Taiwan.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai