Former Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) was yesterday sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison by the Taiwan High Court over his company’s illegal purchase of a stake in Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控).
In October 2010, Koo was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Taipei District Court.
The High Court yesterday sentenced Koo to nine years and eight months in prison and fined him NT$150 million (US$5 million).
Koo can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, the High Court said.
In the ruling yesterday, the court said Koo had violated the Securities Exchange Act (證券交易法) and the Banking Act (銀行法).
According to the ruling, Koo and several company executives used NT$27.5 billion to buy a 9.9 percent stake in Mega Financial through a Hong Kong branch of Chinatrust in 2004, without the approval of the Chinatrust board.
The deal included the illegal purchase of US$390 million in loan notes, convertible into Mega shares, using money earmarked for deposits, it said, adding that profits from the transaction were locked in through insider trading.
The case, dubbed the Red Fire Case after the name of the offshore company used to conduct the operation, surfaced following prosecutors’ investigations into a bid by Chinatrust Financial to take over Mega Financial.
The ruling said Red Fire Developments, capitalized at US$1, was set up in Hong Kong under Koo’s instruction. Koo made US$30.47 million in profit from the illegal trading and did not return the profit to his company, it said.
“Koo made Red Fire Developments his private treasure and used it to collect illegal profits. Those illegal actions harmed Chinatrust and the principle of fairness in the local market,” the ruling said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the