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.
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