Executives of beverage chain Barista Coffee have been found guilty of fraud for misrepresenting beans they sold, with the Shilin District Court on Tuesday sentencing them to short prison stays that can be commuted to fines.
The company was found to have mixed robusta coffee beans into coffee advertised as being 100 percent Arabica beans in several products starting in 2018, the court said.
It ordered the confiscation of Barista Coffee’s ill-gotten gains of about NT$18.29 million (US$604,209) and handed two executives prison terms.
Photo: Wen Yu-te, Taipei Times
Barista Coffee general manager Liu Tzeng-shyang (劉增祥) was given a six-month sentence, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$3,000 per day, and a two-year suspended sentence.
Liu was also fined an additional NT$3 million and ordered to perform 120 hours of community service.
A factory manager surnamed Lee (李) was given a four-month sentence, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$1,000 per day, and a two-year suspended sentence.
Lee was also fined an additional NT$300,000 and ordered to perform 60 hours of community service.
Another defendant, a manager in the company’s coffee roasting department surnamed Ho (何), was found not guilty.
Prosecutors had accused the three of using robusta beans to make up 13 to 26 percent of beverages that the company said were Arabica drinks.
The actions of the three contravened Article 15 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), which prohibits the sale of adulterated or counterfeit food items, and Article 255 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits misrepresenting merchandise.
However, the court found Liu and Lee guilty only on the Criminal Code charges, saying that the robusta beans were of the same caliber as the Arabica beans, so using them did not constitute a food safety issue.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be