Dbtel Inc (
The statement came after prosecutors and investigators yesterday opened an investigation into claims of insider trading against Dbtel chairman Michael Mou (
Mou and Kuo were released on bail of NT$3 million (US$90,400) and NT$1 million respectively after being questioned overnight, said Lin Pang-liang (林邦樑), a spokesman of the Taipei Prosecutors' Office, which is handling the investigation.
"We are trying to determine whether they violated rules on securities exchanges or committed accounting fraud," Lin said.
Investigators yesterday searched 12 sites for evidence, including Mou's house, factories and offices of six investment companies linked with Dbtel, Lin said.
Investigators suspect Mou of illegally trading Dbtel shares through the investment companies, which are all chaired by Mou, using inside information, he said.
"We haven't done anything wrong," Mou told a press conference yesterday.
"The allegation of insider trading and appropriation of the company's capital are not true. The company's cash flow is transparent," Mou said.
The six investment companies are Dbtel's major shareholders, and they sold their holdings in order to obtain cash to fund the construction of Dbtel's new headquarters in the Dingpu High-tech Industrial Park (
After a NT$3.8 billion share-sale fell through last year, the company halved the size of its 20,000-ping headquarters, Mou said.
However, Mou declined to answer questions about Dbtel's financial connection to the investment companies, but blamed Dbtel's poor financial results for the investigation.
Dbtel posted consolidated losses of NT$2.6 billion, or NT$3.01 a share, in the first half of the year, dragged down by its Shanghai handset unit, according to the company's statistics submitted to the GRETAI Securities Market.
Dbtel shares yesterday fell to a historical low of NT$4.11 on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market.
After severing its manufacturing agreement with US handset giant Motorola
Inc in 1999, Dbtel shifted its focus to manufacturing own-brand handsets. In
2002, Dbtel was granted the license to sell brand-name mobile phones in the
fast-growing Chinese market, making it the first Taiwanese handset vendor to
enter the mobile-phone market across the Strait.
Dbtel is lost this advantage after its local competitors BenQ Corp (明基)
and Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達) received Beijing's approval in May to
sell branded mobile phones in China, which consumes 80 million handsets a
year.
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
The Taipei International Cycle Show (Taipei Cycle) yesterday opened at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, with the event’s organizer expecting a steady recovery in the industry this year following a tough last year. This year, 980 companies from 35 countries are participating in the annual bicycle trade show, showcasing technological breakthroughs and market development trends of the bicycle industry at 3,600 booths, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said in a statement. Under the theme “Ride the Revolution,” the exhibition has attracted more than 3,500 international buyers from 80 countries to preregister for the four-day event, which is expected to
RSS