OBI Pharma Inc (台灣浩鼎) chairman Michael Chang (張念慈) was yesterday morning released after posting NT$1 million (US$30,914) bail, as prosecutors listed him as a defendant on insider trading charges.
Chang and four other OBI Pharma executives were summoned for questioning at the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei on Friday, after judicial investigators searched the company headquarters and its laboratories to gather evidence earlier that day.
Prosecutors said they had made breakthroughs in the investigation and therefore questioned the other four company executives, including OBI Pharma general manager Huang Hsiu-mei (黃秀美), head of research and development Yu Cheng-te (游丞德), administration division manager Liao Tsung-chih (廖宗智) and finance division manager Chang Sui-fen (張穗芬), to gather information related to the case.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said there is sufficient evidence of their involvement in insider trading to list them as defendants in the case, but they were released without bail yesterday.
OBI Pharma yesterday issued a statement, saying the company did not engage in any illegal activities, and asked the justice agencies to conduct a fair and unbiased investigation to clear the company of the charges.
The statement criticized the search process, with judicial investigators confiscating private documents and material containing proprietary business information, some of which relates to the company’s core technology development, including results of more than 10 years of research, which it said would adversely affect the rights of company shareholders if leaked and deal a severe blow to the nation’s pharmaceutical, healthcare and bioscience industries.
Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠), a prominent Taiwanese-American biochemist and research scientist, has also been embroiled in the affair.
He returned to Taiwan from the US on Friday and met with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to discuss the case; he again apologized to the public for the controversy, saying he was not involved in insider trading and had no intention of manipulating OBI Pharma shares, some of which were held in his daughter’s name.
While he was in the US, Wong tendered his resignation on March 31, but Ma rejected it.
In related news, Academia Sinica yesterday settled on three candidates for its next president, with the list to be forwarded to the Presidential Office for selection, Academia Sinica Vice President Wang Fan-sen (王汎森) said.
Additional reporting by Wu Po-wei
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