Ex-CTBC Financial Vice Chair receives 92 months in prison for real estate scandal

Taipeh, May 13th (CNA) Jeffrey Koo Jr. (辜仲諒), former deputy chairman of the CTBC Financial Holdings Co., was sentenced to a prison sentence of seven years and eight months for his role in a building base scandal, the district court of the Taipei said on Tuesday.

The prosecutors said that Koo and his colleagues had used up the purchase price for the purchase of a building for 950 million nt $ ($ 31.15 million), higher than a fair market price of 850 million NT US, which caused a loss of $ 100 million for CTBC Financial.

Koo and three of his colleagues contested any misconduct, but the court said that the transaction closed by the four plaintiffs disrupted the arrangement on the financial market.

Care for the Securities and Exchange Act, the court announced in a statement that Koo and his colleagues had violated the rules of transactions with related parties and violation of the trust in the deal for CTBC Financial to buy the building for a floating price in 2005 when it worked as the deputy chairman of the finance company.

In 2019, the public prosecutors Koo and his colleagues, including the former CTBC CFO, Perry Chang (張明田), the former finance manager of CTBC Bank, Lin Hsiang-Hsi (林祥曦), and the former member of the CTBC Investment Service, Lee Sheng-Kai (李聲凱), for their alleged engagement in the deal.

The court said that the four plaintiffs showed a bad attitude after the crime.

According to the court ruling, Chang, Lin and Lee were sentenced to eight years, nine years and six months and nine years or four months.

The court said that the judgment, while the judgment is subject to an appeal, was banned.

According to the public prosecutors, the four were accused of disregard for trust, the production of financial results and the inclusion of transactions in another deal in which the CTBC Bank, the flagship unit of CTBC Financial, bought poor loans from several other companies.

The former brother-in-law of Koos, Chun Chun-Che (陳俊哲 陳俊哲 陳俊哲), also played a crucial role in the building transaction and in bad loans, but when he fled overseas, he was put on a fleeting list, according to the prosecutors.

In a separate statement, CTBC Financial said that the court misunderstood these transactions and insisted that the business was in favor of the company.

CTBC Financial said it supported Koo and his colleagues in the search for legal authorities to clarify their names.

The public prosecutor ceased an investigation by the building and the poor loan transactions after found irregularities when they examined another financial scandal, at which an offshore paper company, Red Fire Development, which was due until 2004.

In 2024, the Supreme Court ordered a resumption, citing inadequate argument in a decision by the Supreme Court, which Koo had released from the allegations in the so -called “Red Fire” in accordance with the Banking Act and the Criminal Code for significant financial losses to CTBC Bank.

Koo resigned as deputy chairman of CTBC Financial after being charged in the “Red Fire” scandal in 2006. He now heads the CTBC Charity Foundation.