The Supreme Court yesterday sentenced both former Yuanta Financial Holding Co chairman Rudy Ma (馬志玲) and his wife, former Yuanta Securities Co chairwoman Judy Tu (杜麗莊), to seven years and four months in jail for violating the Securities Exchange Act (證券交易法).
Ma had lodged several appeals seeking for the trial to be suspended because he has Alzheimer’s disease, but they were rejected. The two were indicted along with a number of senior executives from the holding company on suspicion of involvement in irregular trading in April 2009.
According to prosecutors, the irregularities involved the sale of shares from Yuanta Investment Trust to Yuanta Securities in 2005. The trust bore substantial losses on its interest rate-linked investments after the US Federal Reserve raised its interest rates.
Prosecutors sought a 10-year sentence after it was estimated that the two firms involved in the share sale — both subsidiaries of Yuanta Financial Holding — made illegal profits of NT$670 million (US$22.42 million).
On May 28, 2010, the Taipei District Court handed down a first ruling that found Ma and Tu guilty of violating the Securities Exchange Act and sentenced them to seven years and six months in prison each.
An appeal was filed, which ultimately led to the latest verdict.
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