Prosecutors yesterday indicted China Development Financial Holding (中華開發金控) president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) and 10 others on charges of insider trading and breach of trust.
China Development Financial, the nation’s 13th-biggest financial group by assets, is suspected of benefiting certain major shareholders who passed themselves off as foreign investors and reaped profits by using insider information during the firm’s attempted hostile takeover of smaller rival Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券).
CHARGES
Koo and his associates are charged with violating the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) and the Financial Holding Company Act (金控法), said Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesperson Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村).
“[The accused] should have had a high level of ethical responsibility,” he said. “[They] have violated fair trade rules and caused disturbances in the financial market.”
Following a probe into China Development Financial’s acquisition of Taiwan International Securities, prosecutors alleged that the deal was filled with insider trading and manipulation of stock prices.
PUNISHMENT
China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工業銀行), an affiliate of China Development Financial, is also suspected of illegitimate transactions. Prosecutors allege China Development Industrial Bank purchased shares in hundreds of companies at relatively high prices, then sold them to private equity funds at low prices to benefit certain groups.
Prosecutors have asked for heavy sentences, alleging that Koo illegally obtained more than NT$100 million (US$3 million). Although Koo has repeatedly denied the accusations, he may face up to seven years in jail if convicted.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS