The nation’s judicial agencies came under fresh public scrutiny yesterday, as petrochemical tycoon Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) reportedly fled overseas while the Supreme Court was processing a petition on his conviction for an insider trading offense.
It is the second time in the past few weeks a major white-collar crime felon eluded the law by fleeing Taiwan following the escape of convicted former prosecutor Ching Tien-po (井天博).
Chen, 73, is the founder of Taipei-based Ho Tung Chemical Corp (和桐化學) and is the honorary chairman of local manufacturing business association the Chinese National Federation of Industries. Chen is also a former chairman of the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan.
He was found guilty of fraud, insider trading and manipulating the shares of the Tainan-based optoelectronic company HannsTouch Solution Inc (和鑫光電) and was sentenced to 30 months in prison by the Taiwan High Court, along with a fine of NT$2 million (US$60,596) in July.
Another business fraud case involving Chen, in which he allegedly joined Taiwan Youni Corp (台灣優力公司) to defraud eight Taiwanese banks through NT$1.8 billion in non-performing loans, is still being investigated. Chen had been awaiting the outcome of the trial, where prosecutors are seeking a sentence of at least seven years in prison for breaching the Banking Act (銀行法).
It was reported this week that Chen had fled across the Taiwan Strait on a fishing boat sometime in October, first heading to Kinmen Island, then taking another boat to a coastal city in China’s Fujian Province.
Chen filed a petition in August against the High Court’s guilty verdict, pleading to serve his sentence in a Hsinchu-area prison, where Chen had registered his new residence, instead of a Taipei-area prison.
After the High Court rejected his petition, Chen appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled to reject his petition on Dec. 1.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office issued a statement yesterday saying that they did not receive the Supreme Court’s rejection decision and therefore they did not take Chen into custody to start serving his prison term.
The statement said that the court did not notify prosecutors regarding the new situation of Chen’s case and therefore no officers were assigned to monitor his movements or take him into custody.
Media reports said that Chen’s flight was aimed at evading ruling on the NT$1.8 billion bank defraud case, where he was tipped off on a likely guilty verdict, which would carry a minimum seven-year prison term, and made plans to flee to China where he has several petrochemical business ventures.
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
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
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
RSS