The chairman of Tatung Co, one of the nation’s leading home appliance makers, was released on bail of NT$20 million (US$687,800) yesterday after being questioned over an alleged violation of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).
According to the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office, Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) was suspected of misappropriating his company’s assets through investments and fake transactions.
In addition, Lin allegedly used accounting tactics to have the company cover his personal debts, which resulted in a 57.88 percent decrease in Tatung’s paid-in capital, prosecutors said.
To avoid any possible impact on the bourse, as Tatung is a listed company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, prosecutors searched Lin’s company office and his residences in Taipei City and New Taipei City (新北市) after the exchange closed on Friday afternoon.
During the raid, prosecutors seized the company’s accounting documents, stock market transaction data and related material for further investigation.
Lin, his wife, who is one of Tatung’s directors, and four others, including auditing and accounting officers, were summoned by the prosecutors’ office for questioning that lasted late into the night.
After more than 10 hours of questioning, Lin was released on bail of NT$20 million. He was not barred from leaving the country.
His wife, Lin Kuo Wen-yen (林郭文豔), as a witness in the case, was released after questioning, and one of the company’s auditing officers was released on bail of NT$200,000.
The prosecutors’ office declined to disclose any further details of the case, but local media reported that Tatung had not collected its accounts receivable from its overseas subsidiaries for almost two years.
The reports said prosecutors suspected Lin was closely involved in transactions to make Tatung shoulder more than NT$1 billion in bad loans over the past two years.
In a statement issued later yesterday, Tatung rebutted local media reports of the case as inaccurate and added that it believes that the judiciary will find Lin innocent.
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