A Spanish fugitive wanted in a multi-million euro fraud case has been deported to an undisclosed country in the EU, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday, ending a 10-day legal saga that began with an Italian news report alleging he was living in Taipei.
The suspect, Salvador Alejandro Llinas Onate, left a holding area at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9:35pm, and after completing deportation procedures was accompanied by NIA officials to his departing flight, the agency said in a statement.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
Llinas Onate was initially deported to Singapore on Saturday night, only to be denied entry by that country on the grounds that he is wanted by Interpol.
He was then flown back to Taiwan early yesterday.
Since he had been deported, he was not allowed to re-enter Taiwan, and had to be held in an NIA holding area at the airport while the government worked to resolve the case.
In its statement, the NIA said that "following consultations with EU legal authorities, it was decided that Llinas Onate should be deported as quickly as possible to a European Union member state."
The country where Llinas Onate arrived would then make a decision as to whether to send him on to Spain to face legal proceedings, the agency said.
Taiwan does not have direct flights to Spain.
According to a Taipei immigration officer, Llinas Onate, who ran a rental car company in Trento, Italy, is accused of illegally selling about 1,180 vehicles that did not belong to him to third parties in 2019 before fleeing from Italy to Taiwan.
Foreign media reports have said that Llinas Onate rented cars without paying any rent and then sold them to unsuspecting buyers.
Through the scheme, the 48-year-old made about 30 million euros (US$32.77 million) in profit, according to international news media.
His car rental firm declared bankruptcy in 2019, and he vanished not long afterward.
He is wanted by both Spanish and Italian judicial authorities over the matter, the NIA has said.
Taiwan's news media reported Llinas Onate obtained permanent residency in Taiwan in 2021 after entering the country via a dependent visa, and has run five companies in Taiwan, including two high-end restaurants in a prime district in Taipei.
The NIA has not released further information about the case or said whether they were aware Llinas Onate was wanted by Interpol when the agency granted him permanent residency.
Taiwan is not a member of Interpol, widely believed to be due to opposition from Beijing.
Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported on Oct. 10 that Llinas Onate was believed to be in Taipei. In the wake of the report, the NIA said on Monday last week that it had ordered the fugitive to leave the country within 10 days.
The NIA said that the 10-day grace period, which would have expired on Wednesday, was given because Llinas Onate lived in Taiwan with his family, including two young children.
However, subsequent court filings showed that Llinas Onate was ordered to leave Taiwan by Saturday.
According to a United Daily News report, Llinas Onate was informed by the NIA on Thursday last week that it would hold a deportation hearing for him at 10am the next day.
With the help of his lawyers, Llinas Onate appealed the scheduling of the hearing, arguing that he had not been given sufficient time to prepare.
As a result, Llinas Onate's appeal was heard at the Taipei High Administrative Court at 11am on Friday, at more or less the same time as the NIA hearing where his deportation was approved, the report said.
At 8pm on Friday, immigration officers took Llinas Onate into custody and brought him to the airport, where he departed on a flight to Singapore just after midnight, in the early hours of Saturday, it said.
On Saturday, the Taipei High Administrative Court issued a preliminary ruling finding flaws in the directive the NIA issued deporting Llinas Onate and ordering that he be released as the case proceeded.
However, Llinas Onate had already been deported, and as such, was not allowed entry to Taiwan after being sent back from Singapore early yesterday.
In a follow-up ruling yesterday, the administrative court rejected Llinas Onate's appeal, saying that in the absence of any immediate danger to him, it was not feasible to issue a provisional injunction in the case, now that his residence permit had been revoked and he had already been deported.
The ruling can be appealed.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
RSS