Ting Hsin food tycoon Wei Ying-chun may face 30 years in jail over oil scandal
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 30 October, 2014, 10:22pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 30 October, 2014, 10:22pm
Lawrence Chung in Taipei [email protected]
Wei Ying-chun is escorted by police at the Changhua district court in central Taiwan. Photo: AFP
A tycoon from one of Taiwan’s richest families could spend 30 years behind bars after being charged yesterday with dozens of counts of fraud over a food scandal that has set off a groundswell of opposition to the business empire.
The Changhua District Prosecutors Office said Wei Ying-chun, the third of the four Wei brothers of Ting Hsin International Group, was indicted on 139 counts of fraud after various group subsidiaries were found to have either used or sold cooking oil blended with oil products meant for animal feed or industrial use.
“We have recommended that the court sentence [Wei Ying-chun] to 30 years in prison,” an office spokesman said.
The spokesman said prosecutors also sought sentences of up to 25 years for three other key defendants, including former general manager Chang Mei-feng. He said Wei Ying-chun would be also be prosecuted separately for allegedly evading up to NT$730 million (HK$186 million) in tax since 2006.
Wei Ying-chun has denied all charges, saying he had no idea of the irregularities since the subsidiaries were “all handled by people of different responsibilities”.
The charges are yet another blow to the family ranked by Forbes magazine in June as the island’s second-richest, with an estimated worth of US$8.6 billion through their investments in the food, real estate and telecom sectors.
Among the group’s assets is the popular Master Kong instant noodle brand.
Wei Ying-chun was forced to step down as chairman of Wei Chuan Food, the group’s the major Taiwanese subsidiary after it and two other cooking oil units -- Cheng I and Ting Hsin Oil – became embroiled in the scandal.
Prosecutors allege that the units sold the contaminated oil to many downstream food manufacturers for at least eight years, helping the group to generate NT$3.2 billion in profit in that time.
The economic ministry estimates the scandal has inflicted NT$16.7 billion in losses on the local food industry and seriously damaged its reputation.
The scandal has also prompted some civic groups to join forces in the “destroy Ting Hsin” boycott of products on the island. There is also a movement against Ting Hsin’s property developments and telecom investments on the mainland, with the government asking a banking consortium to consider not granting loans to the group.
On Tuesday, under mounting pressure from the island’s government, Wei Ying-chiao, the second-eldest brother, was forced to step down as vice-chairman and executive president of the management company of the landmark Taipei 101 building in the city centre.
Ting Hsin Group has a 37 per cent stake in the company and said yesterday that it had no plans to give it up.
The Taiwan central bank has also accused the Wei brothers of not investing “a single cent” of their offshore profits in Taiwan.
It said the group issued Taiwan depository receipts to raise NT$17.6 billion and used the funds to buy the Taipei 101 stake before mortgaging the shares to remit funds out of Taiwan.
