Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsueh Ling’s (薛凌) husband, Sunny Bank chairman Chen Shen-hung (陳勝宏), was sentenced to three years and two months in prison by the Taiwan High Court yesterday for involvement in a loan scandal at Sunny Bank.
Hsueh was found not guilty in the same ruling.
Hsueh, Chen, Hsueh’s brother Hsueh Tsung-hsien (薛宗賢), Sunny Bank official Ho Ming-lung (何明龍) and Chen Yi-yuan (陳益源) were indicted over violations of the Banking Act (銀行法) and forgery in August 2007.
Hsueh Ling and Chen Shen-hung were found not guilty by the Shih-lin District Court in the first trial, but in the second ruling yesterday, the High Court said that as the bank’s chairman, Chen must have known the loan of more than NT$4 million (US$136,933) he authorized was questionable
The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence that Hsueh Ling was involved in the process.
Chen Shen-hung was sentenced to three years and two months in prison and was fined NT$3.2 million by the High Court.
Hsueh Tsung-hsien and Sunny Bank officials Ho and Chen Yi-yuan were all sentenced to four years in prison.
Ho and Chen Yi-yuan were fined NT$4 million, while Hsueh Tsung-hsien was fined NT$5 million.
The High Court ruling said the defendants as well as the prosecutors could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors charged that in 2002, Sunny Bank official Ho and Chen Yi-yuan told Hsueh Tsung-hsien that the Chinese-language Chunghwa Daily newspaper was selling a building in Taipei for about NT$400 million and urged him to buy the property.
Prosecutors say Hsueh Tsung-hsien then bought the building and forged the contract, raising the sale price to NT$500 million, and took the forged contract to Sunny Bank to request a loan of more than NT$4 million against the deal.
Prosecutors argued that Hsueh Ling, her husband and two of his close assistants, Ho and Chen Yi-yuan, all knew the contract was forged and that they conspired to authorize the loan.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
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