A legal expert filed a lawsuit against former Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) executive Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交) at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office yesterday, alleging that Wei took NT$80 million (US$2.38 million) in kickbacks from irregular transactions in 2009 and that NT$5.25 million of that money was used to make an illegal donation to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
People First Party candidate and publisher of the influential Journal on the Rule of Law (法治時報) Huang Yueh-hung (黃越宏) also alleged political inference in the 2009 case, saying that public prosecutors acted as “protection” for Ting Hsin Group by dropping charges against Wei.
Huang alleged that Wei pressured SinoPac Securities (永豐金證券) into paying NT$80 million in kickbacks when the group’s subsidiary Master Kong Holdings (康師傅) issued Taiwan depositary receipts (TDR) for its listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in late 2009.
Master Kong Holdings — China’s leading instant noodle manufacturer — issued 380 million TDRs at its listing and reportedly raised about NT$14.2 billion in the deal, that was underwritten by SinoPac Securities.
Master Kong was listed on the stock market as a foreign-owned company, registered in the Cayman Islands, with Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp (康師傅控股有限公司) its registered name.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office officials had evidence of Wei pressuring SinoPac Securities into paying NT$80 million, and also had evidence that Wei used NT$5.25 million of that money to make an off-the-books donation to the KMT intended for use in its election campaign, Huang said.
“For his illegal financial activities, Wei should have been charged with embezzlement and fraud, and he also violated the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法),” he said.
However, public prosecutors dropped charges against Wei and SinoPac Securities chairman Huang Min-chu (黃敏助), Huang said, and instead prosecuted what he called “two minor figures” in the case — Tai Chia-wei (戴家偉) and Chuang Ying-ming (莊英明), deputy managers for SinoPac’s securities market capital section and securities sales section respectively.
“[The decision to drop the case] resulted in a tycoon getting away with taking kickbacks, but the employees handling the money were convicted,” he said, adding therefore he is requesting that the head prosecutor personally handles his lawsuit, so that it is not dropped as a result of judicial interference.
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The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
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