The Taiwan High Court on Tuesday turned down a request by Gary Wang (王令麟), son of long-time fugitive Wang You-theng (王又曾) who died in California in late May, to lift a travel ban, meaning he will not be able to attend his father’s funeral.
The court said the request could not be granted because the founder of Eastern Broadcasting Co is still involved in legal cases.
“To ensure that Gary Wang will stand trial and that, if convicted, will serve time in prison, the court has rejected his application to lift his overseas travel ban,” the court said in a statement.
Wang You-theng, one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives, died in a car accident in West Covina, California, on May 27 aged 89.
All of Wang You-theng’s eight children in Taiwan are banned from leaving the country. Six of them have served jail terms, with one still behind bars.
Wang You-theng founded Rebar Asia-Pacific Group. In January 2007, the group’s China Rebar Co and Chia Hsin Food & Synthetic Fiber Co applied for insolvency restructuring, triggering a run on the now-defunct Chinese Bank, another Rebar affiliate.
He and his wife fled Taiwan on Dec. 30, 2006, going first to Hong Kong and then China just before the scandal erupted. They later went to the US.
Authorities put Wang You-theng and his wife on the nation’s most-wanted list on Jan. 15, 2007.
The government has sought for years to have the couple repatriated from the US.
Taiwan missed a chance to detain the couple on Feb. 2, 2007, when they transited in Singapore on their way from Los Angeles to Myanmar. Singaporean immigration authorities had tacitly agreed to Taiwan’s request for the extradition of the couple, but the pair refused to board the Singapore Airlines flight designated by Singaporean authorities, which would have stopped at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on its way to Los Angeles.
Instead, they demanded to return to the US on a direct flight to Los Angeles.
In March 2008, prosecutors indicted Wang You-theng and 106 others involved in the Rebar Group scandal on a long list of charges, including fraud, money laundering and insider trading.
Total losses caused by the Wang family’s alleged illegal activities involving Rebar Group subsidiaries were estimated at NT$300 billion — about one-fourth of the nation’s annual tax revenue in 2008.
Mega International Commercial Bank, Rebar Group’s largest creditor, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Feb. 5, 2007, to recover Rebar Group’s outstanding loans, seeking to recover US$210 million, bank officials said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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