An associate of fugitive Chu Guo-rong’s (朱國榮) and three sailors surrendered to police after allegedly helping the business tycoon to travel to the Philippines, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Chu’s friend George Chou (周哲男) last month turned himself in to the Criminal Investigation Bureau, as did the sailors, the reports said.
Chu, president of Global Funeral Service Corp, was convicted of stock manipulation and insider trading, and sentenced to 24 years in prison on the two counts. He has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
He was declared a fugitive on Sept. 28 after repeatedly failing to report to the Sanzhangli Police Station in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義). His bail conditions required him to report to the station in person every day before 7pm. He forfeited NT$400 million (US$12.45 million) in bail.
Chou last month turned himself in to law enforcement alongside the captain and crew of Chu’s private yacht after seeing on TV news that a police task force was launched to find those responsible, Central News Agency reported.
Citing a source close to the businessman, TV channel SETN said Chou told investigators that Chu fled Taipei immediately after his required check-in with police on Sept. 7.
Chou told police that he drove Chu to a harbor in Kaohsiung, where the two boarded the yacht and sailed to Anping Port (安平) in Tainan for provisions before sailing to Laoag City in the Philippines, it reported.
Chu met up with his girlfriend, surnamed Chen (陳), and their two-month-old child in Laoag, from where they flew to Vanuatu via Sydney, the TV channel said.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and the Taipei Police Department separately declined to comment on the reports, but said that authorities were expanding a search with the help of Interpol.
Provisions of the Criminal Code stipulate that the warrant for Chu’s arrest is valid for 30 years and can be extended by seven years and five months, meaning he could be 107 when the order to apprehend him expires.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau has reached out to foreign law enforcement for assistance in the matter, a bureau spokesperson said, adding that Chu faces forfeiture of bail exceeding NT$100 million in other cases.
Chou is a supercar aficionado and a former racecar driver.
He is a former publisher of an automobile magazine and founder of an insurance group catering to owners of high-performance vehicles.
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