Judicial authorities yesterday placed the owner of Ching Song Lohas Tech-Agriculture Inc (青松樂活科技農業公司) and his wife on an international fugitive list for allegedly defrauding banks and investors.
Prosecutors charged Lu Cheng-yen (呂政諺), 42, and his wife, Chang Hsiu-lan (張秀蘭), 43, with embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust after the company went bankrupt and the pair fled abroad in April last year, the Investigation Bureau said in a news release yesterday.
The couple first boarded a flight to China, then headed to the US with about NT$162.3 million (US$5.64 million at the current exchange rate) in embezzled funds, bureau officials said.
The officials said they have asked US authorities — through a mutual legal assistance agreement — to track down the couple and arrest them, or determine whether they have left the country.
Lu is listed as the owner and Chang as the business manager of Ching Song, which was based in Chiayi County’s Taibao City (太保).
The company was a leading retailer of vegetables, fruit and other farm produce, and had established transport and sales channels for agricultural regions in central and southern Taiwan.
Before it went bankrupt, Ching Song had an annual turnover of about NT$700 million, as the couple had over the past decade expanded its operations to include new storage depots at which products could be cleaned and packaged, as well as cold storage logistics, investigators said.
At one time, Lu listed Ching Song on the TAIEX, saying that the firm would become the “TSMC of farming production,” referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
To attract investors, Lu reportedly claimed that he had signed agreements to supply major hypermart, supermarket and convenience store chains, as well as prominent restaurants.
When the company went bankrupt and the couple fled, officials in Chiayi and Yunlin counties organized legal teams to help the more than 400 small farmers who were owed money.
Many other suppliers and small companies were also unable to collect what the company owed them.
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