A former Ministry of Labor official and 11 members of four local asset management firms were yesterday charged with corruption and manipulating stock prices in a labor fund bribery case.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office charged Yu Nai-wen (游迺文), former head of the Domestic Investment Division of the ministry’s Bureau of Labor Funds, with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Securities and Exchange Act (證交法) by accepting bribes from PJ Asset Management Co Ltd (寶佳資產管理) chief executive officer Daniel Tarng (唐楚烈) and executive Chiu Yu-yuan (邱裕元), the indictment said.
The firms allegedly made illicit gains of NT$180 million (US$6.34 million).
Others indicted include Uni-President Assets Management Corp (統一投信) vice president Chueh Chih-chang (闕志昌), managers Sun Min-cheng (孫民承) and Kuo Shih-ching (郭士慶), and analyst Yu Chien-yeh (俞建業).
The list also includes Fuh Hwa Securities Investment Trust Co (復華投信) chief investment officer Chiu Ming-chiang (邱明強), asset manager Liu Chien-hsien (劉建賢) and analyst Chen Chou-lun (陳周倫), as well as Capital Investment Trust Corp (群益投信) vice president Hsieh Chih-ying (謝志英) and analyst Tang Ming-chen (湯明真), prosecutors said.
Tarng and Chiu had been collaborating since May 2019 to manipulate the Far Eastern Department Store stock price in the hopes of boosting it before selling their shares from April to July last year, they said.
However, the return was not as profitable as they had predicted, so they decided to ask Yu Nai-wen to manipulate Far Eastern’s stock price using the labor fund, they said.
From July, Yu Nai-wen maintained close contact with PJ Asset Management, Uni-President Assets Management, Fuh Hwa Securities Investment and Capital Investment Trust, all of which held a large number of Far Eastern shares, prosecutors said.
Yu Nai-wen has also been accused of asking the assets management companies to buy Far Eastern shares at higher than market prices.
Prosecutors said they found that Yu Nai-wen had spent NT$150,000 to NT$220,000 per month using his credit card from September 2012 to September last year.
However, he only earned a monthly salary of NT$100,000, they said.
In addition, about NT$9 million was deposited from an unidentified source into Yu Nai-wen’s account during that period, which led investigators to suspect that he was taking bribes in exchange for manipulating the share prices of certain companies.
In November, prosecutors launched several raids as part of their probe into the case. Yu Nai-wen, Tarng, Chiu Yu-yuan, Chiu Ming-chiang and Liu have been detained since December.
Yu Nai-wen was removed from his post on Sept. 18, when the Department of Civil Service Ethics ordered an investigation into his investment practices.
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