Hsu Han (徐漢), a former executive at state-run oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan, who went missing days before being sentenced to 25 years in prison for corruption, was captured yesterday in Taitung County, prosecutors said.
In a statement issued yesterday evening, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors' Office said Hsu had been taken into custody in Taitung’s Jinfeng Township (金峰), without providing additional details.
Hsu went missing on Thursday last week after breaking and removing his ankle monitor in Pingtung County’s Wanluan Township (萬巒).
Photo: Taipei Times
He was sentenced on Monday by the Ciaotou District Court to 25 years in prison.
According to the verdict, Hsu, in his mid-60s, worked at CPC for more than 40 years, rising from an entry-level employee to become head of the company’s refinery division in Kaohsiung’s Nanzih District (楠梓) in 2019.
In January 2022, Ciaotou prosecutors and officials from the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption searched Hsu’s office, seizing NT$27.1 million (US$848,177) in cash.
Prosecutors alleged Hsu used his procurement authority limit of NT$200 million to steer eight purchasing contracts worth almost NT$1 billion to select companies, which in turn paid him NT$16.86 million in bribes.
In addition to the bribes, Hsu was unable to explain the source of another NT$4.73 million in assets in his possession, prosecutors said.
In May of that year, prosecutors indicted Hsu and 20 other suspects from three companies for contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and other crimes.
After being detained for more than a year in the run-up to his trial, Hsu, who alone among the suspects maintained his innocence, was granted NT$5 million bail in June 2023, although he was banned from leaving the country and required to wear an ankle monitor.
In 2024, the Ciaotou District Court rejected a request by Hsu to travel abroad to attend his son’s wedding, saying that most of his immediate family lived abroad and that he could try to flee.
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