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Businessmen made to pay NT$1.83bn in compensation

The Taipei District Court ruled yesterday that two businessmen must pay the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TSEC) more than NT$1.8 billion (US$55.4 million) in compensation.

"Former Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co chief executive officer Ong Da-ming (翁大銘) and his business partner Lee Hsiu-fen (李秀芬) must pay NT$1.83 billion to the TSEC because the organization suffered tremendously when they defaulted on their share purchases," Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩) said.

The compensation includes a figure of more than NT$1.6 billion requested by the TSEC, and NT$150 million in interest.

Liu said the Taiwan High Court had last June sentenced both Ong and Lee to three-and-a-half years in prison for their infractions against the Securities Transaction Law (證券交易法).

In 1994 Ong and Lee bought more than NT$5 billion of stocks in Ong's Imperial Hotel and the Taiwan Tea Corp through Ong's Hong Fu Securities Co. However, the pair lacked the capital to complete the purchase, and were forced to default.

In order to protect the country's stock market, the TSEC covered the default to the tune of NT$2 billion, and then filed a suit seeking compensation.

The case dragged on in the Taipei District Court for more than a decade.

Liu said that Ong and Lee still had the right to appeal the ruling.

Last May, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office also indicted Ong for embezzling more than NT$5 billion from Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co.
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