Taipei prosecutors said yesterday that the wreckage and parts of a US rocket offered by Taiwan Pineapple Corp chairman Huang Tsung-hung (黃宗宏) to help pay a fine have been appraised at about NT$200 million (US$6.3 million). Prosecutors said they have given the parts to a Chaiyi museum.
Huang was convicted of misappropriating more than NT$700 million from Chung Hsing Commercial Bank.
Arrested in Keelung in November 2007 while attempting to flee the country by boat, Huang is currently serving time in Taipei Prison after he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in October 2007 for misuse of the bank’s funds.
Taipei prosecutors said Huang, who could not afford to pay the NT$300 million (US$10 million) fine, had his family offer more than 600 pieces from his antiques collection to prosecutors.
They are being appraised by experts to assess their value.
Prosecutors said Huang later remembered he also had parts and wreckage from the US rocket Titan II that could help to pay off his fine.
The wreckage was stored at Huang’s farm in Pingtung County.
Prosecutors said Huang told them the rocket parts and wreckage, which came from a Japanese company — Space Age — were valued at about NT$50 million in the 1990s.
Huang said he came to own the wreckage because the Japanese company was unable to repay its debt to him, so its officials gave him the parts as compensation, the prosecutors added.
Prosecutors said the judiciary has donated the wreckage to Chaiyi County’s Tropic of Cancer Solar Exploration Center for display. The exhibition will open to the public on Sept. 4.
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