Investigators have seized more useful data in their second search of troubled Rebar Asia Pacific Group's (力霸亞太企業集團) headquarters in connection with a probe into the group's suspected involvement in insider trading, prosecution officials said yesterday.
A team headed by Prosecutor Chang Shu-hua (張書華) searched 17 locations, including the Rebar Group headquarters and the homes of the group's board members on Friday, focusing on accounting and transaction records related to suspected insider trading of shares of two ailing Rebar affiliates -- China Rebar Co (中國力霸) and Chia Hsin Food and Synthetic Fiber Co (嘉新食品化纖).
Lin Jinn-tsun (
"The impounded items include computer discs, private notebooks, accounting books and transaction records that will be very helpful with the investigation into the Rebar Group's suspected illegal commercial dealings," Lin said.
The search followed Thursday's raids at more than 30 locations, including China Rebar chairwoman Wang Chin She-ying's (王金世英) office at the Guangfu branch of another of the group's subsidiaries -- The Chinese Bank (中華銀行).
Investigators seized accounting books and notebooks they said contain new evidence linked to insider trading of shares of more than four of the group's firms, Lin said.
"Friday's search has spurred investigators into believing that the group's founder, Wang You-theng (王又曾), had long been deliberating hollowing out the corporate assets," Lin said, adding that Wang had regularly met with the group's six top financial executives to discuss how to embezzle various Rebar affiliates' funds through crossholdings and insider trading.
Judicial probes were launched after China Rebar and Chia Hsin announced on Jan. 4 that they had filed for insolvency protection on Dec. 29, triggering a run on The Chinese Bank the following day.
The investigations initially focused on suspected irregularities at five Rebar subsidiaries -- the Great Chinese Bills Finance Corp's (
As of Friday, two Union Insurance executives -- vice chairman Wang Lin-i (王令一) and president Frank Wang (王事展) -- had been taken into custody pending further investigations, while Chin Shui-ho (金水和), Union Insurance chairman and father of Wang Chin Shyh-ying, had been released on NT$200,000 bail.
After examining the accounting records found during the search, prosecutors said they suspected Eastern Multimedia (
Wang You-theng fled to China on Dec. 30 and his wife, Wang Chin Shih-ying, followed on Jan. 1, only a few days before prosecutors prohibited scores of their family members and Rebar executives from leaving the country.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS