Harace Lin (林鴻明), the former chairman of Taipei Financial Center Corp, operator of Taipei 101, was indicted yesterday by Taipei prosecutors on suspicion of embezzling more than NT$1 billion (US$34.5 million) from Jin Shang Chang Development Co.
Lin is a vice chairman of Hung Kuo Real Estate Development Corp and the owner of Jin Shang Chang Development Co.
Lin was charged with violations of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) and the Business Entity Accounting Act (商業會計法) in committing fraud, money laundering and forgery.
Prosecutors requested that the Taipei District Court sentence him to 12 years in prison and fine him NT$400 million.
Lin has been in custody for nearly four months. The district court is expected to hold a bail hearing soon.
Meanwhile, the vice general manager of Hung Kuo, Lin Nan-tsung (林南聰), was indicted on suspicion of helping Harace Lin use fraudulent practices to transfer funds and hollowing out company assets, prosecutors said.
Jin Shang Chang general manager Chen Chi-tsang (陳祈蒼) and chief financial officer Tung Tsui-hua (董翠華) were also indicted.
Prosecutors said Chen Chi-tsang has turned prosecution witness and they asked the court to give him a lengthy sentence.
Prosecutors alleged that Harace Lin took out corporate loans for NT$1.8 billion from China United Trust and Investment Corp in 1999 for property development dealings.
At the time, Lin had put up several tracts of land in Tamsui District (淡水), in what is now New Taipei City (新北市), as collateral for the loans, but the loans were never repaid.
To offload the bad debt, China United Trust and Investment sold the debt to several land development and construction firms, prosecutors said. However, Jin Shang Chang did not report the bad debt in its financial statements and Lin is suspected of hollowing out the assets of his company.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
RSS