US prosecutors said a scheme to manipulate the financial statements of the world’s largest insurance company, American International Group Inc, resulted in a loss of more than US$1 billion to investors.
Four former executives of General Re Corp and a former executive of American International Group were convicted in February of conspiracy, securities fraud, mail fraud and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. They await sentencing.
The prosecution filed court papers on Friday citing a study by its expert, concluding the fraud-related losses to AIG shareholders totaled US$1.2 billion to US$1.4 billion. Another methodology from the expert put the losses at around US$543 million to US$598 million, but prosecutors said either method is reasonable.
The defendants are challenging the estimate, which could affect the length of their sentences. The defendants, all of whom await sentencing, are Christopher Garand, Ronald Ferguson, Elizabeth Monrad, Robert Graham, and Christian Milton.
Ferguson said in court papers last week he anticipated the government will advocate a loss amount that leads to a recommendation for life in prison. But prosecutors made no such recommendation, simply concluding that the defendants should receive a “substantial” prison sentence.
A report by the probation department recommends sentences of 14 to more than 17 years for each defendant.
In a separate set of court papers filed on Friday, Garand argued that prosecutors failed to show there was any loss caused by the deal that led to the charges.
Milton also filed court papers on Friday, saying he was not personally enriched by the scheme as defendants were in other recent corporate scandals.
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Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday extended its losing streak to a fifth straight session, closing at NT$29.719 against the US dollar, down NT$0.13 from the previous day, as broad US dollar strength and lingering trade uncertainties weighed on non-US dollar currencies, traders said. The NT dollar depreciated NT$0.357, or 1.21 percent, against the greenback over the past five trading days, central bank data showed. Turnover at Taipei Forex Inc fell to US$878 million, reflecting subdued investor activity as markets await Washington’s tariff rate on Taiwan. “The US dollar index has shown significant strength in recent sessions, putting pressure on non-dollar currencies,” a Taipei-based
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