The Ministry of Justice said yesterday it had requested three times that Chinese authorities repatriate fugitive tycoon Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪), but to no avail, adding that it will keep trying.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that former Tuntex Group chairman Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪), who was indicted in late 2003 on suspicion of embezzling NT$800 million (US$27 million) from his firm and fleeing to China, appeared on Thursday at a luxury restaurant financed by himself in Xiamen City, in China’s Fujian Province, where he treated about 50 former colleagues from National Taiwan University’s Economics Department to a banquet.
Approached by the Apple Daily for an interview, Chen reportedly said: “I am a person on [Taiwan’s] wanted list. I cannot be interviewed.”
According to the Apple Daily report, Chen’s 50 former colleagues formed a group to travel around China’s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. Before leaving China, they stopped in Xiamen Province and were treated to Chen’s banquet.
The ministry said that since Taiwan and China signed an agreement to combat crime in April 2009, it had asked Chinese authorities to repatriate Chen in August 2009, September 2010 and May of this year, but without success.
The ministry added that Chen — who is doing business in China — does not shy away from making public appearances and so it should be easy for Chinese authorities to locate him.
The ministry has been criticized for being unable to repatriate Taiwanese fugitives from China such as Chen, former An Feng Group president Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), former Kuangsan Enterprise Group president Tseng Cheng-jen (曾正仁) and former legislative speaker Liu Sung-fan (劉松藩).
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