The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday gave Ruentex Group chairman Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) a deferred prosecution for his role in the alleged state funds embezzlement case made against former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Division (SID) on June 30 last year indicted Lee and his aide, Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), accusing the pair of siphoning US$7.8 million to establish the Taiwan Research Institute (TRI) when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attempted to reimburse secret diplomatic funds between 1998 and 1999.
The SID claimed the pair embezzled money from a secret 49 million rand donation (then worth US$10.5 million) that had been set aside in May 1994 to give to the ruling party of a then-diplomatic ally, reportedly South Africa’s African National Congress.
The prosecution claims Liu, with Lee’s apparent approval, laundered NT$250 million (US$8.3 million) in American Express travelers checks that were given to Yin, who then, along with several of his company’s subsidiaries, made personal donations to the TRI.
The SID said Yin was suspected of violating the Business Accounting Act (商業會計法) and of committing forgery, and it turned him over to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
The prosecutors’ office yesterday said that since Yin had donated NT$600 million to academics, religious and charitable organizations over the years, and had promised to give another NT$10 million to charities during the investigation, prosecutors decided to grant him a deferred prosecution.
Prosecutors added Yin had admitted to laundering the money and expressed his regret. They also said Yin had to make the NT$10 million donation within three months.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
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