The founder and former chairman of Cosmos Bank, Hsu Sheng-fa (
Taipei District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Lin Jinn-tsun (
Prosecutors were seeking to determine whether the pair had violated the Banking Act (
RAIDS
On Friday afternoon, more than 100 Taipei prosecutors and Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) agents raided the headquarters of Auto 21, a vehicle sales company run by Hsu Sheng-fa and his son, as well as their offices and residences.
Lin said investigators had seized a number of documents.
Prosecutors on Friday afternoon also summoned nine officials from Auto 21 for questioning, but released them without bail early yesterday morning.
LOANS
Prosecutors believe that between 2001 and 2006, the Hsus used more than 10 Auto 21 subsidiaries to apply for loans from the bank, and that under their direction the bank illegally granted the loans, believed to be valued at about NT$800 million (US$24.7 million).
Between 2004 and 2005, the pair allegedly used several plots of land as collateral for loans of more than NT$2 billion from the bank, which granted the loans despite the fact that the real value of the plots was much lower than indicated, prosecutors said.
In addition, in 2004 the Hsus allegedly sold NT$15 billion in non-performing loans to Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of Auto 21, for NT$1 billion -- far less than normal practice, prosecutors said, adding that the company had only paid the bank NT$30 million.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese