Waterland Securities Co board director Tsai Chin-wen (蔡清文), a key figure in the Taiwan Development Corp (TDC) scandal, was released yesterday after cooperating with investigators.
Tsai, who was detained for more than two weeks, has admitted his guilt and will be a witness for the prosecution. Prosecutors said statements made by Tsai were damaging to Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), the president's son-in-law.
Meanwhile, former minister of finance Lin Chuan (
Lin was later released.
The questioning was part of a probe into a snowballing insider trading scandal involving Chao.
"We summoned Lin to lbetter understand the process by which a syndicated loan was granted to TDC, as well as the appointment of Su Teh-jien (蘇德建) as TDC chairman," Taipei District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Lin Pang-liang(林邦樑) said yesterday.
Last August, the state-owned Bank of Taiwan organized a syndicated loan totaling NT$16.5 billion (US$515.1 million) for TDC. The deal, which involved 29 banks, was overseen by the Ministry of Finance.
Prosecutors doubt the legitimacy of the syndicated loan, since TDC had NT$3 billion (US$94 million) in capital. They also suspect that the terms of the loan agreement were flawed and that it should never have been approved.
The loan is at the center of the investigation into alleged insider trading involving Chao. Prosecutors suspect that Chao gained inside information about the loan, and then purchased TDC shares through an account held by his mother. Chao then profited when TDC's share price soared after the loan was made public.
Su, a former official of the Bank of Taiwan, was appointed TDC chairman on June 1 last year. Prosecutors suspect that bribery may have been involved in Su's appointment, which was approved by the ministry.
Lin has told reporters that the appointment of Su was not his decision, suggesting that other high-ranking officials may have been involved.
Meanwhile, former Taoyuan General Hospital chief Ho Fong-ming (
Ho was found to have deposited NT$500,000 into the bank account of Chao Chien-hsun (
Prosecutors suspect that the money was a bribe Ho had paid to help him earn his position.
Ho's resignation was approved by the Department of Health on Thursday.
Chen Huei-yu (
Prosecutors suspect that Chao may have laundered his profits through Chen Huei-yu's bank accounts. The questioning was still proceeding at press time.
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