The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday dropped a charge of share price manipulation against Mike Xu (許雅鈞), husband of talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣, better known as Little S) in relation to the Top Pot Bakery scandal last year.
The Top Pot Bakery chain — which Hsu had endorsed and in which Xu held shares — caused public anger in late August last year when it admitted that it used artificial flavoring in products it advertised as “all natural.”
While prosecutors investigated the Top Pot Bakery on suspicion of fraud, they discovered that its parent company, Genome International, allegedly violated the insider trading clause of the Securities Exchange Act (證券交易法).
On Jan. 28 this year, Xu, his father, Xu Ching-hsiang (許慶祥), and two others were indicted by prosecutors on charges of insider trading. The case is being processed by the Taipei District Court.
Meanwhile, given that Genome International’s share value rose sharply from September 2012 to March last year, from NT$62 to NT$206 per share, prosecutors launched a separate probe into whether Genome International was involved in illegally boosting its share price.
According to prosecutors on Tuesday, as the major shareholder of the company, Mike Xu did not sell or buy shares in large transactions during the stock’s surge.
The share value increase coincided with an upturn of stock value in the biotechnology sector and there was no evidence of deliberate manipulation and insider trading, so the charge of share price manipulation was dropped, prosecutors said.
Additional reporting by Chien Li-chung
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope