Integrated-circuit module maker Phison Electronics Corp (群聯) yesterday confirmed that investigators on Friday searched the company’s offices over alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act (證券交易法).
Phison said it is cooperating with investigators, but denied any wrongdoing, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Local media yesterday reported that prosecutors and investigators searched Phison headquarters in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南) and several company executives’ residences on Friday evening.
Photo: Chuo Yi-chun, Taipei Times
Authorities have summoned people for questioning over fraud and embezzlement allegations involving Phison chairman Pua Khein-seng (潘健成), reports said.
Prosecutors believe the suspects might have embezzled funds through fraudulent business transactions between Phison and its subsidiaries from 2009 to 2014, leading to inaccuracies in the companies’ financial statements over that period, reports said.
Pan was released on NT$20 million (US$633,513) bail and banned from traveling overseas after being questioned by prosecutors overnight.
Others were also released on bail of between NT$1 million and NT$3 million, reports said.
Phison, established in 2000, focuses on NAND flash technology. NAND flash is a type of memory chip used in storage products such as memory cards.
Apart from NAND flash, the company’s product portfolio includes embedded multimedia cards and solid-state drive controller chips for smartphones and tablets.
Pan yesterday said that some problematic business transactions might have crossed the judicial “red line,” but added that he and others had not made illegal gains, local media reported.
In yesterday’s filing, Phison said the probe would have no impact on the company’s operations.
The company this week reported cumulative revenue of NT$24.152 billion for the first seven months of the year, up 20.15 percent from the same period last year.
The company has not released its earnings results for the second quarter of the year, but in the first quarter, its net profit increased 7.36 percent year-on-year to NT$929.74 million, or NT$4.71 earnings per share, stock exchange data showed.
Phison shares closed at NT$269.5 on Friday on the Taipei Exchange, having risen 15.91 percent so far this year.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS