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.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
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