Yuanta Group chairman Rudy Ma (馬志玲) yesterday denied charges of breach of trust at a pretrial hearing in a case involving alleged irregular trading.
Ma and his wife, former Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券) chairwoman Judy Tu (杜麗莊), among others, were indicted a month ago on suspicion of violating breach of trust and the Securities Transaction Act (證券交易法), among other offenses.
Prosecutors have asked the Taipei District Court to sentence Ma and his wife to 10 years in prison.
Along with the couple, Yuanta Securities president Lee Chang (張立秋), bond department assistant manager Wu Li-min (吳麗敏), Yuanta Bank general manager Chen Chi-chang (陳麒漳) and former Yuanta official Lin Ming-yi (林明義) were indicted for alleged involvement. Prosecutors have requested eight-year sentences for each of them.
All six defendants protested their innocence. Five are barred from leaving the country.
The court has yet to announce whether Ma would be barred as well.
Ma’s lawyer said his client had been showing signs of dementia for the past three years and should be allowed to travel to avoid changes to his routine that could have an affect on his condition.
Prosecutors say the irregularities involved the sale of shares of Yuanta Investment Trust Co to Yuanta Securities in 2005 after the former suffered substantial losses from its investment in interest-rate-linked structured notes following a series of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.
Prosecutors said that Yuanta Securities made NT$600 million (US$18 million) in illegal profits from the trading.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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