In accordance with the prosecutor’s indictment of former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) on money-laundering charges, the Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday imposed official administrative punishments on financial executives Victor Ma (馬維建), Tu Li-ping (杜麗萍) and Roger Lee (李明賢) for their alleged roles in the scandal.
The commission’s Futures and Securities Bureau ordered Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券), the securities arm of Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), to immediately relieve former board directors Ma and Tu of their duties for violating Article 56 of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).
Although Ma and Tu had already quit their posts at Yuanta Securities, the administrative punishment will bar both from taking executive roles in any securities-related businesses for the next three years, the bureau’s chief secretary Wu Quei-mao (吳桂茂) told a media briefing yesterday.
The bureau said both Ma and Tu were indicted for helping the former first lady stash away NT$740 million (US$23.56 million) between June 2006 and September 2007.
The commission’s Banking Bureau yesterday also ordered Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) to immediately dismiss Lee from the company’s board and remove him as vice chairman of its banking subsidiary, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行).
Lee was found guilty of putting documents in Wu’s safety deposit box at the bank under his own custody without having obtained authorization from its board in May 2007 — signs that Lee abused his power and the bank’s internal control principle, said Lin Tung-liang (林棟樑), deputy director of the Banking Bureau.
Lee will be barred from any executive role at a bank for the next five years, but he may be able to continue serving as vice chairman at Cathay’s Vietnamese subsidiary, which is under Vietnamese jurisdiction, Lin said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
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Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would