The Taiwan High Court on Thursday handed down reduced sentences over Top Pot Bakery (胖達人) stock manipulation, finding investor Mike Xu (許雅鈞) not guilty, while finding his father, Xu Ching-hsiang (許慶祥), guilty, but giving him a suspended sentence.
In the second ruling on the case, the court found Xu Ching-hsiang guilty of insider trading and violating the Securities Exchange Act (證券交易法), giving him a suspended jail term of 22 months, which he does not have to serve if he is not caught breaking the law in the next four years.
Xu Ching-hsiang was also required by the court to attend a 20-hour public education class.
The court upheld the not guilty verdict for Mike Xu, husband of talk show hostess Little S (小S), also known as Dee Hsu (徐熙娣), from the first ruling in August last year.
It also handed down reduced terms with suspended sentences to other suspects in the case, Genome International Biomedical Co (GIBC, 基因國際) president Hsu Hsun-ping (徐洵平) and his wife, Chiang Li-fen (姜麗芬).
The court said that Xu Ching-hsiang admitted to insider trading during court hearings after pleading not guilty in the initial trial.
He asked for leniency from the judges, citing the charitable work that he claimed he had done through his medical practice.
As Mike Xu was found not guilty and other defendants received suspended sentences, the law prohibits prosecutors from appealing the ruling, unless major flaws or violations of the Constitution are found, legal experts said.
The investors who lost money in the stock manipulation reportedly reached an agreement with the defendants over compensation, agreeing on about NT$16 million (US$492,800).
The defendants’ lawyer cited the agreement during the trial as an indication of remorse from the accused and cited their lack of previous criminal convictions as grounds for a more lenient sentence.
The case stemmed from a 2013 investigation into allegations of false advertising by the Top Pot Bakery chain, which Little S had promoted, after it admitted using artificial flavors in its products.
Prosecutors suspected the executives at its parent company, GIBC, of insider trading.
Prosecutors said the defendants sold GIBC stock and committed other fraudulent acts, including selling 1.5 million shares at NT$100 per share prior to releasing a statement that the company was doing poorly and causing share prices to drop.
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