Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) has insisted that an alleged bribery case within the group be aggressively pursued and he is cooperating with police on both sides of the Taiwan Strait on the matter, a source from Hon Hai said yesterday.
The source said that Gou has asked James Lee (李金明), a general manager in charge of ethics and business violations within the group, to look into the situation.
Next Magazine reported recently that Lee was informed several months ago that executives on the group’s Surface Mount Technology (SMT) committee had allegedly solicited bribes from suppliers on a long-term basis.
The informers apparently attached suspicious accounting records to support their accusations and Lee immediately reported the matter to Gou.
According to the source, an internal investigation could be completed within one or two weeks.
The Hon Hai Group, parent of Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has set up several committees to integrate new technologies within its various businesses.
The SMT committee was authorized to sign contracts for equipment used by the company’s business groups and allegedly took bribes from those suppliers.
A preliminary internal probe has found that the case implicates only Hon Hai procurement executives, not senior management.
The source said Gou has strict ethical requirements for procurement executives because of the size of the purchases made by the company.
In a written statement issued yesterday, Hon Hai said that its supply chain involving Taiwanese businesses in China, its personnel in China and its business development are running as normal and have not been affected by the allegations.
The statement said that based on Gou’s instructions, the company will not only try to find out who was involved and why the bribery occurred, but will also examine its internal practices in order to prevent the same thing from happening again.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer