Taipei prosecutors said yesterday that Jeffrey Koo Jr. (辜仲諒), the vice chairman of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co, could be arrested or listed as wanted should he fail to appear at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on Nov. 22 for questioning regarding an alleged bank management buyout scandal.
Prosecutors said Koo -- a defendant in an investigation into the company's investment in partially government-controlled Mega Financial Holding Co -- had been subpoenaed on Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 for an interview over his role in allegations that Chinatrust had invested in Mega Financial via structured notes transacted through its Hong Kong branch.
Koo did not appear in court on Nov. 7 as requested, saying he was attending a two-month-long Eisenhower Fellowship program in the US.
Koo will avoid arrest if he returns to Taiwan before or on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Several of Chinatrust's senior executives were detained last month by investigators probing allegations that Chinatrust had transferred the structured notes to another Hong Kong-based company called Red Fire Development Ltd, which cashed in the notes, making a profit of more than US$31 million.
The money was later returned to Chinatrust.
Prosecutors suspect that Red Fire is a front company controlled by the Koo family and were trying to determine whether any individuals have made illicit profits.
After detaining Chinatrust's senior executives, the prosecutors next want to question Koo Jr.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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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