A woman accused of defrauding nine Taiwanese banks out of NT$38.6 billion (US$1.28 billion at the current exchange rate) yesterday arrived in Taiwan to stand trial after being arrested in the US late last year, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau said.
Wang Ying-chih (王音之), a former co-owner of Taipei-based New Site Industries Inc (NSI, 潤寅實業) and one of the chief suspects in the fraud case, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on a flight from Los Angeles, escorted by two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the bureau said.
She was subsequently arrested by bureau agents and taken to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, it said.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
Wang and her husband, NSI co-owner Yang Wen-hu (楊文虎), allegedly instructed their employees to create fraudulent transaction records, fund transfers and investment schemes from January 2011 to May last year to deceive the banks and secure loans, the bureau said.
The couple fled the nation in June last year and a warrant for their arrest was issued in August.
The bureau learned that the couple were staying in their son’s home in Los Angeles and asked US authorities for help in apprehending them.
US immigration agents arrested the couple in Los Angeles on Dec. 12. Yang was repatriated first and arrived in Taiwan on Jan. 21, as he was in the US with an entrance visa and did not qualify for asylum, the bureau said.
He has been detained since and held incommunicado.
Wang had entered the US on a B2 tourist visa and made an asylum request, but her application was denied after an immigration court hearing on Jan. 23 and she was ordered to be sent back to Taiwan.
Prosecutors on Jan. 9 formally charged the couple and 34 others, including NSI staff and employees of companies they allegedly colluded with, with contravening the Banking Act (銀行法), the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and the Business Entity Accounting Act (商業會計法).
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