Central Motion Picture Corp (CMPC) former vice president Chuang Wan-chun (莊婉均) yesterday reported to prison for her embezzlement conviction, one week late and barely avoiding becoming a fugitive.
The Supreme Court last month upheld Chuang’s guilty verdict for embezzling NT$749.32 million (US$24.99 million) from the sale of CMPC.
She was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
Nine months of her sentence can be commuted into a fine.
After the court rejected Chuang’s appeals for a stay of sentence, she failed to report to prison on Wednesday last week, the court mandated date.
Chuang reported to prison yesterday, with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on the verge of issuing an arrest warrant.
Chuang issued a statement through her attorneys, claiming her innocence and saying she did not break any laws or CMPC procedures during her tenure as company vice president.
The court could not confiscate NT$749.32 million from her savings as criminal proceeds, because she did not take any of the money she has been convicted of embezzling and the action did not cause any financial loss to CMPC, Chuang said.
“I am going to prison an innocent woman and I will be leaving prison an innocent woman,” she said.
She spent the week closing her businesses and arranging the retirement of her employees, Chuang said, adding that prosecutors refused to grant her extra time during her mother’s illness.
“I heard from the press about the prosecution’s intent to issue an arrest warrant,” Chuang said.
The court said then-CMPC president Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and other executives denied that Chuang was authorized to invest company funds.
Even had Tsai and others gave the instructions privately, they were illegal under the CMPC corporate charter, which required such decisions to be made by the board in a meeting, the court said.
Chuang became CMPC vice president in May 2006.
While Tsai was traveling abroad between then and September 2006, she used the company’s various seals to expropriate millions in funds from the corporation, using investment as a pretext, court documents said.
The prosecutors’ office pressed charges against Chuang in 2010.
The CMPC has been at the center of several allegations and high-profile political scandals.
Critics said that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) sale of the corporation in 2013 enabled the party to evade responsibility for the acquisition of public assets during the authoritarian period.
Earlier this month, a source said that there was allegedly a recorded conversation of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) ordering the sale of CMPC at below market value.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as