A man accused of defrauding nine Taiwanese banks of NT$38.6 billion (US$1.29 billion at the current exchange rate) is being detained incommunicado after he was returned to Taiwan to face trial, the Taipei District Court said yesterday.
Co-owner Yang Wen-hu (楊文虎) of Taipei-based New Site Industries Inc (NSI, 潤寅實業) and chief suspect in the case, was extradited on Tuesday under the escort of two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, as part of judicial cooperation between Taiwan and the US.
The indictment from earlier this month showed that NSI defaulted on loans from Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), DBS Bank (星展銀行), O-Bank Co (王道商業銀行), Yuanta Commercial Bank (元大商銀), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Yang was transferred to Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau officers on his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and taken to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for processing.
The court ordered Yang to be held without outside communication to prevent him from colluding with accomplices and witnesses, or destroying evidence.
“There is also the possibility that Yang might flee abroad,” the court said.
Taipei prosecutors were investigating allegations that Yang and his wife, Wang Ying-chih (王音之), had committed fraud and, after realizing that the two had fled Taiwan, issued an arrest warrant for them in August last year.
The bureau then asked US authorities to assist in apprehending Yang and Wang, who were believed to have fled to Los Angeles, where their son, Yang Chang-heng (楊昌衡), maintains a residence.
Prosecutors on Jan. 9 indicted the couple and 34 others in the case on breaches of the Banking Act (銀行法), the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and the Business Entity Accounting Act (商業會計法).
The couple was arrested on Dec. 12 by ICE agents in Los Angeles.
Taiwan and the US arranged for Yang’s extradition, while Wang mounted a legal defense against her deportation, with her lawyers arguing that her tourist visa permitted her to stay and visit family.
Wang is not to return to Taiwan until after an immigration hearing today, the bureau said.
Local investigators directly collaborated with US counterparts, who allowed them to locate and track the couple, it added.
The couple reportedly fled Taiwan on June 1 last year on a flight to Shanghai, before flying to New York City on June 4 and making their way to Los Angeles.
From January 2011 to May last year, Yang and Wang allegedly asked NSI staff to create fraudulent transaction records, fund transfers and investment schemes to deceive the banks, prosecutors said.
The ministry touted the successful legal collaboration between the two nations, thanking the US Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies for their assistance based on the “Taiwan-US Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters,” which was signed in 2002.
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