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Sentence for FSC official reduced

The Taiwan High Court yesterday reduced the prison sentence for former Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Examination Bureau director-general Lee Chin-chen (李進誠) from 10 years to nine years and six months for his involvement in the “vultures” insider-trading scandal.

In addition to his nine-and-a-half-year sentence, high court judges also deprived Lee of his civil rights for five years.

Stock investor Chen Chun-chi (陳俊吉) was sentenced to three years in prison and fined NT$10 million (US$330,000). Chen was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail with a fine of NT$15 million in the first verdict, which was handed down on June 6, 2006.

The Taipei District Court ruled in 2006 that Lee had leaked confidential information about a government probe into Power Quotient International Co (PQI) to Lin Ming-da (林明達), an investor who used the information for profit.

Taipei prosecutors launched an investigation into PQI in January 2005, after the firm posted revenue figures for 2004 that officials found suspicious. They began probing Lee’s actions in March 2005 after PQI’s shares plummeted on the stock exchange.

An investigation showed that Lee told Lin on March 11 that PQI headquarters would soon be raided. Lin immediately borrowed a substantial amount of money to short-sell PQI.

On March 15, Lee told the Chinese-language United Daily News reporter Kao Nien-yi (高年億) that PQI headquarters would be raided in a day or two. Kao’s story, which was published the next day, was credited with sending PQI’s share price down.

Lin was also sentenced to two years in prison, but judges instead gave him five years probation. He was fined NT$20 million.

Chen and another investor, Chen Yung-cheng (陳永承), and a senior employee of the Taiwan Stock Exchange Chang Hsi-kuan (張錫寬) were also convicted and fined for violating the Securities and Exchange Law (證券交易法).

The five became known in the media as the “vultures” and made about NT$15 million from insider trading.
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