Taipei prosecutors yesterday announced that tycoon Wang Yu-yun (王玉雲) had been placed on the nation's wanted list after he failed to show up to begin his seven-year prison term.
"Wang has been placed on Taiwan's wanted list," Taipei District Prosecutors Office spokesman Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村) said yesterday.
On April 26, Wang, the former president of Chung Shing Commercial Bank (中興銀行), received a seven-year jail sentence after being convicted of misusing the bank's funds. He was found guilty of mismanaging bad loans valued at more than NT$80 billion (US$2.4 billion).
Prosecutors issued a notice to Wang last month ordering him to report for his incarceration, but Wang failed to show up at the proper time yesterday.
Wang, a senior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and Kaohsiung mayor from 1973 to 1981, was indicted in 2000 and has been prohibited from leaving the country since 2002.
Financial officers said that Wang had transferred most of his assets to China and other countries before facing prosecutors.
Lin said yesterday that Wang likely had fled to China after he was sentenced in April.
Prosecutors suspect Wang may have fled to China by boat.
The judicial system has come under fire for allowing convicted criminals -- especially white-collar ones -- to roam freely.
Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) said that agents from the ministry's Investigation Bureau who were in charge of monitoring Wang would be held responsible for his failure to appear for incarceration.
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