A former Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) official involved in an insider-trading case that began more than decade ago had his sentence reduced to six months by the High Court yesterday.
Lee Chin-cheng (李進誠), a former prosecutor who served as director-general of the commission’s Examination Bureau in 2005, had a previous six-year sentence reduced to one year by the High Court after it was ordered by the Supreme Court in July 2017 to review the case.
The High Court then reduced the one-year sentence to six months based on the provisions of the 2007 Criminal Commutation Act (罪犯減刑條例), which allows offenders convicted prior to April 24, 2007, to have their sentences reduced.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The High Court did not immediately explain why Lee, indicted for leaking confidential information to an investor, was given a lighter punishment.
Lee can still appeal the ruling, which can be commuted to a fine based on a rate of NT$900 per day of the prison term, the High Court said.
Lee was first sentenced to 10 years by the Taipei District Court in October 2005 for contravening the Statute for the Punishment of Corruption (貪污治罪條例) in a case related to the illegal trading of Power Quotient International Co (勁永國際) shares.
He was found guilty of leaking information about a government investigation into the company to Lin Ming-da (林明達), who reportedly profited from the information.
Lin and others accused in the scandal were sentenced to jail terms of between seven months and two years.
Lee appealed the district court’s ruling and received a sentence of nine years and six months.
On appeal, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the High Court for review, and in 2013, the High Court found that there was a lack of evidence regarding some of the charges, but not corruption.
It found Lee guilty of only breaching Article 132 of the Criminal Code by leaking confidential information related to matters other than national defense in his capacity as a public official, and reduced his sentence to one year and four months.
That was further commuted to eight months based on the 2007 Criminal Commutation Act.
The verdict was appealed again, and the Supreme Court sent it back to the High Court for another review.
In May 2016, the High Court reversed its previous ruling. It found Lee guilty not only of leaking confidential information, but also corruption, and sentenced him to six years in jail.
Another appeal ensued, and the Supreme Court in July 2017 ruled that the High Court’s previous explanations regarding its findings had been contradictory, and once again sent the case back to the High Court, resulting in yesterday’s ruling.
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