Taipei prosecutors yesterday searched the Taipei residence of talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣, better known as Little S) in Taipei and questioned family members on suspicion of illegal trading.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) said that after prosecutors investigated allegations of false advertising by the Top Pot Bakery chain, which Hsu had promoted, because it admitted to using artificial flavorings in its products, prosecutors came to suspect executives at its mother company — Genome International Biomedical Co — of illegal trading.
Huang said the residence of Genome chairman Hsu Hsun-ping (徐洵平) was also searched yesterday morning.
Hsu Hsun-ping and his wife, Dee Hsu’s husband, Mike Xu (許雅鈞), and her father-in-law, Xu Ching-hsiang (許慶祥), and a financial executive at the company have also been summoned for questioning. Both Xus hold shares in Genome.
The interviews were ongoing as of press time.
Huang said the five are suspects.
According to Huang, in the middle of this year, after the learning that Genome was not performing well, the five suspects being questioned sold a large quantity of shares within a few days to avoid losses of about NT$200 million (US$6.6 million).
He said those sales might constitute illegal trading.
The district prosecutors’ office searched Top Pot Bakery outlets in Taipei in late August and questioned staff as part of a probe into the Taipei City Government’s allegations that the bakery uses artificial flavorings in its baked goods.
That probe is ongoing.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard