The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday decided not to enforce a prison sentence given to a 74-year-old financier for breach of trust, based on evidence the man suffers from severe cognitive impairment.
The Supreme Court handed down the penalty of seven years and four months to Yuanta Group founder and former Yuanta Financial Holding Co chairman Rudy Ma (馬志玲) in June. He was to start serving the term in August.
However, Ma’s attorney appealed for the suspension of prison term, saying his client has been in a state of non compos mentis — mentally incapable of handling his affairs — for years.
At the request of prosecutors, a hospital’s psychiatry department examined Ma and diagnosed him with Alzheimer’s disease.
Although he does not have to serve his prison sentence now, Ma could be jailed in the future if he is found to have recovered his mental faculties, prosecutors said.
Ma and his wife, former Yuanta Securities Co chairwoman Judy Tu (杜麗莊), were sentenced by the Supreme Court on June 30 for profiting from irregular trading. Tu is serving her sentence.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
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