The maximum reward for people who report financial crimes would be raised to NT$4 million (US$140,701) next week, a 10-fold increase to encourage whistle-blowers, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) told a news conference in New Taipei City yesterday.
The maximum reward would be given to people who provide information that helps the commission uncover financial crimes in which companies or individuals are fined at least NT$10 million or sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison, FSC officials said.
The cap of NT$400,000 was increased in line with the commission’s goal of providing greater incentives for reporting, Financial Examination Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Tzy-hao (張子浩) said.
Photo: Kao Shih-ching, Taipei Times
If a whistle-blower exposes a less-serious crime — where individuals or companies are fined between NT$5 million and NT$10 million, or sentenced to one year to three years in prison, they would receive NT$2 million, also 10 times the current reward, Chang said.
Rewards of NT$250,000 would be given for information leading to fines of between NT$1 million and NT$5 million, or jail terms of less than one year, he said, adding that this level is five times higher.
For lower-level crimes drawing fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million, whistle-blowers would receive NT$50,000, also five times higher than the current amount, he said.
The commission last year issued a total of NT$305,000 in rewards to seven whistle-blowers, up from NT$50,000 in 2018 and NT$155,000 in 2019, it said.
It has paid NT$2.32 million in rewards since the program began, the FSC said.
The biggest single-case reward was NT$200,000, it said.
“There is a lot of room for increases in reporting on financial criminal activities,” Chang said.
Whistle-blowers can be internal or external to a company or institution, he said.
The commission would investigate information provided by anonymous whistle-blowers, but would not issue rewards in such cases, he said.
“A few anonymous whistle-blowers claimed rewards after reporting companies that were fined or sentenced. We verified their identity and paid them, as the information was helpful.” Chang said. “However, after next week’s increase in rewards, we would no longer pay out on anonymous tips.”
Most of the reports it has received in the past few years have been connected to illegal activities in securities investment consulting, he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices