The Taiwan High Court yesterday found Pingtung County Councilor and former independent legislator Tsai Hau (蔡豪) and businessman Liang Po-hsun (梁柏薰) guilty of helping a convicted banker flee to China, the final ruling in their case.
The High Court sentenced Tsai to six months in prison, although the sentence could be commuted to a fine of NT$180,000.
Liang, the former president of the Bank of Overseas Chinese, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, which he must serve.
The ruling said the pair helped Wang Hsuan-jen (王宣仁), former general manager of the bankrupt Chung Shing Bank, flee the country.
Wang was sentenced in 2007 to six years and eight months in prison for breach of trust in connection with of a multibillion-dollar loan scandal.
He and two other top officials at the bank were found guilty of approving illegal loans to six syndicates, including Taiwan Pineapple Corp, which cost the bank billions in bad loans.
Yesterday’s ruling said before Wang received the official notice to start his prison term, Liang urged him to flee to Shanghai, saying he would arrange for Wang to serve as general manager of a steel company that he ran there.
Wang and Liang then visited Tsai in Pingtung, and Tsai later arranged the escape, the court ruling said.
The High Court said Wang flew from Taipei to Penghu in May 2007 before sailing on a fishing boat to Xiamen, China. The voyage took half a day and the next day Wang took a train to Shanghai, where he stayed at Liang’s company until he was arrested.
Wang was repatriated from China in February 2008, the first major economic fugitive to be repatriated since the Kinmen Agreement was signed on Sept. 12, 1990.
Yesterday’s ruling said the pair were convicted of violating the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) and Offenses of Concealment of Offenders and Destruction of Evidence (藏匿人犯及湮滅證據罪).
Liang, the former chairman of Hsinchiehchung Construction Co, had himself fled to China in 2004 after being found guilty of embezzling funds from his bank and forging contracts for the construction firm. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison, which he served.
He returned in April 2006, vowing to provide testimony against then Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), who was caught up in a corruption scandal.
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