TAIWAN FRAUD PROBE WIDENS

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Taiwan prosecutors yesterday questioned the chairman of Eastern Multimedia Group as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged embezzlement at his father's separate business empire.

The probe is being closely watched because Carlyle, the US private equity group, holds a majority stake in Eastern Multimedia Corp (EMC), the flagship of the group and one of Taiwan's largest cable companies, which it bought last year.

Yesterday, prosecutors raided the group's offices and the home of Gary Wang, chairman and founder of the group, as part of the ongoing investigation.

In March, 107 people were indicted in Taiwan over the alleged embezzlement of T$73bn (US$2.2bn) from the Rebar Group, a conglomerate set up by Mr Wang's father and run by several family members.

The case is Taiwan's largest embezzlement scandal and has triggered a campaign by regulators to crack down on financial irregularities and clean up the island's markets.

Wang Yu-theng, the Rebar founder, and his wife fled to the US in January after two Rebar flagship companies filed for insolvency. The move triggered a run on the group's Chinese Bank, which became insolvent soon after and has since been taken over by the government.

The Eastern head has repeatedly said that Eastern is an independent group, separate from Rebar, and also that he had refused to lend money to his father or the family business or to guarantee for any of their debts.

But investigators said yesterday they were examining whether there had been any irregularities in Mr Wang's sale of his stake in EMC last year or in his group's bid for the Taipei Arena, a multipurpose facility built and run by Eastern as a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project.

The probe is focusing on the past close ties between Rebar and Eastern. According to past Rebar financial statements, the group's two flagship companies still owned large stakes in Eastern Group firms until 1999.



台湾检调部门昨日传讯了东森媒体集团(Eastern Multimedia Group)的创始人兼董事长王令麟(Gary Wang)。当局目前正在调查王令麟之父王又曾(Wang Yu-theng)商业帝国涉嫌盗用资金一案，此次传讯即是相关调查的一部分。

此次调查受到了密切关注，原因是美国私人股本集团凯雷(Carlyle)持有东森媒体科技公司(Eastern Multimedia Corp, EMC)的多数股权。东森媒体科技公司是东森媒体集团的旗舰企业，也是台湾最大的有线电视公司之一，于去年被凯雷收购。

作为此次调查的一部分，检调部门昨日对东森媒体集团办公室和王令麟的住所进行了突然搜查。

3月份，有107人因涉嫌盗用力霸集团(Rebar Group) 730亿元新台币（合22亿美元）资金而被起诉。力霸集团是王又曾创建的联合企业，由其数位家庭成员经营。

此案是台湾最大的盗用资金丑闻，促使监管部门发动了打击金融违规、清理台湾市场的行动。

在力霸集团两家旗舰企业申请破产后，王又曾夫妇在1月份逃到美国。此事导致集团下属的中华商业银行(The Chinese Bank)发生挤兑风潮，随后迅速破产，并被政府接管。

王令麟已反复表示，东森是一家独立于力霸集团之外的集团，并拒绝借钱给他的父亲或家族业务，也拒绝对他们的任何债务进行担保。

但检察部门昨日表示，他们正在核查王令麟去年出售东森媒体科技公司股权交易及其集团竞标台北巨蛋(Taipei Arena)是否违规。台北巨蛋是一个建设-运营-转让(Build-Operate-Transfer, BOT)项目，是东森集团建设并运营的一个多用途设施。

此次调查将注意力集中于力霸与东森之间的过去紧密关系。力霸集团过去的财务声明显示，该集团的两家旗舰企业直到1999年还持有东森集团下属公司的大量股份。