A vice chair of the developer building Taipei’s newest skyscraper has been questioned and restricted from leaving the country, as investigators look into allegations that he embezzled more than NT$1 billion (US$32.1 million) from the project, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media earlier in the day reported that the directors of Grand River Development Ltd (碩河開發) embezzled money from loans to fund construction of the The Sky Taipei tower.
Grand River raised more than NT$20 billion for the building, which is to be the second-tallest in Xinyi District (信義) after it is completed by the end of this year.
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The report said that Grand River vice chairman Chiu Kuan-hsun (邱冠勳) allegedly used funds from the project to pay off the personal debt of his fellow director, Ma Ting-hai (馬廷海).
It also claimed that the company pledged property rights for the building to a Chinese brokerage, allowing it to attend company meetings in the name of debt enforcement without property scrutiny by the authorities.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it on Jan. 18 conducted searches of four locations, and summoned Chiu and a witness for questioning.
As the amount involved is significant and questions remain in the case, prosecutors said it has restricted travel for Chiu and summoned him for another round of questioning.
Ma was also named as a suspect, but has not yet been questioned since he is not a citizen, nor has not entered Taiwan, prosecutors said.
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