Former China Development Industrial Bank (CDIB) president Benny Hu (胡定吾) was charged yesterday with siphoning off company funds to gather proxy votes to remain on the board of directors from 1993 to 2002.
Taipei District prosecutors stated in the indictment that Hu and company bank vice president Liao Kuang-chao (廖光照) used company memorabilia purchased with company funds to gather proxy votes for themselves.
Prosecutors allege that Hu and Liao used similar tactics three times from 1993 to 2002 to get re-elected to the new board of directors.
Hu and Liao allegedly obtained receipts from company employees at the price of between 5 percent and 9 percent of the amount indicated on the receipt to create false expense reports and manipulate the company’s accounting records.
The two also allegedly received reimbursements from the company’s fund by inappropriately billing it for gifts and meals bought for company clients.
As much as NT$53 million (US$1.7 million) are estimated to have been embezzled from the company through illegal accounting practices and forgery, prosecutors said.
District prosecutors charged Hu and others with breach of trust, embezzlement, violations of the Business Accounting Law (商業會計法) and the Tax Collection Act (稅捐稽徵法) and other charges.
A former Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT) chairman, Hu has also been indicted in a separate case involving FAT officials who allegedly bribed Chinese officials to win route rights in China.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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