Former President Chen Shui-bian’s (???) son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (???) was sentenced to 46 months for perjury and insider trading by the High Court on Wednesday.
The jail term is the combination of a three-month sentence for perjury and a 44-month sentence for insider trading of which Chao was found guilty in August 2011 and October 2021, respectively. An interlocutory appeal can be filed to challenge the combined sentence.
Chao started his jail sentence in October.
The perjury was a result of Chao cooperating with former first lady Wu Shu-jen (???), who was found guilty of using fraudulent receipts to obtain reimbursement for spending from the state affairs fund in 2006.
The ruling about insider-trading came after a guilty verdict in a case mired in years of litigation related to the trading of shares in real-estate developer Taiwan Land Development Corp. (TLDC) in 2005. The case later became a major political scandal in Taiwan.
In 2005, Chao’s father decided to buy TLDC shares after then-TLDC Chairman Su Te-chien (???) leaked confidential information regarding the approval of a syndicated loan for the company to the Chaos and others at a dinner in a Japanese restaurant in Taipei that year.
Chao’s father bought TLDC shares a few days after the meeting before news of the loan’s approval surfaced and sent the shares significantly higher.
According to the High Court, Chao’s father made illegal gains of NT$35.17 million (US$1.26 million) because of the insider information.
Chao did not buy any shares and did not make any illegal gains, but the court found him guilty of sharing information and coordinating insider trading activity with his father and others involved in the scheme.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel
