Lien Hui-hsin (連惠心), daughter of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), was listed as a defendant yesterday for her role in a case involving her investment in a nutrition supplement company whose weight-loss pills were found to contain unauthorized drugs.
Previously listed as a witness, Lien Hui-hsin was subpoenaed yesterday evening as a defendant by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office after days of speculation about her role at Geneherbs Biotechnology Co (菁茵荋生物科技), whose weight-loss product Wellslim Plus+ was confirmed to contain banned substance, cetilistat, a lipase inhibitor designed to treat obesity.
The questioning was still ongoing at press time last night.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Her role has been in question since Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) first raised questions about the pills last week.
Lien Hui-hsin at first said she was only an endorser for the company and denied any involvement in the management of the firm.
After Juan and DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) broke the news about her NT$15 million (US$510,000) investment in the company as the majority shareholder with a 70 percent stake, Lien Hui-hsin later acknowledged the investment on Sunday in an interview, but insisted that her managerial role was only nominal and she did not run the company on a daily basis.
She is facing a sentence of up to two years for violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法) for using cetilistat in Geneherb’s products if her role as chief executive of the company is confirmed.
Yesterday morning the prosecutors’ office raided the offices of Wellcare Pharmaceutical Co (云丰生技醫藥), the manufacturer of Wellslim Plus+, for a second time, as well as the offices of a Wellcare subsidiary.
Agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau questioned three defendants — Geneherbs general manager Tseng Hsin-yi (曾心怡), Wellcare chairman Huang Chen-kang (黃振康) and Wellcare research and development director Yeh Mei-keng (葉枚耕) — before transferring them to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
Meanwhile, prosecutors cited a report by the Taipei City Goverment’s Department of Health saying that 7Slim, another Geneherbs product, was also found to contain cetilistat.
In the interview on Sunday, Lien Hui-hsin questioned the timing of the probe as well as the extensive media coverage, saying that political influence could be a factor, while Lien Chan also came to his daughter’s defense on Tuesday, saying he did not want to see “any improper force influencing the authorities’ handling of the case.”
There have been rumors that the relationship between the Lien family and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has soured because of Ma’s perceived passiveness toward further investigations into the shooting of former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文), Lien Chan’s son, during a campaign rally in November 2010, as well as the election-eve shooting of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004, when they were running in a presidential election against Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
On August 17, 2016, the Geneherbs Biotechnology Co was acquitted of the charge by the Taipei District Court.
This story has been updated since it was first published per request made in April 2021 by a lawyer representing Lien Hui-hsin.
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
More than 8,000 people took part in a rally in Taipei yesterday to express support for more defense spending, after the opposition slashed the Cabinet’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget and capped it at NT$780 billion. The demonstrators urged the Cabinet to propose another bill. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the main problem of the passed budget plan is the removal of funding for critical items, not just that the total amount is smaller. Critical budget items included purchasing or developing uncrewed vehicles, Strong Bow (強弓) missile systems, additional ammunition, artificial intelligence-powered combat systems and Taiwan-US
RSS