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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Nationwide investigation of businesses launched
Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ko Kuang-hui talks to reporters in Kaohsiung yesterday about the office’s investigations into financial irregularities. Photo: Huang Chien-hua, Taipei Times
HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT: The government is set on staying off the Asia Pacific Group money laundering list, officials said of the nationwide business investigation
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Authorities yesterday launched investigations into more than 500 businesses nationwide in a coordinated effort headed by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau to clamp down on fraudulent accounting, money laundering and other economic crimes.
The large-scale operation mobilized most of the bureau’s regional offices and mobile investigation teams, with several hundred officers and judicial investigators questioning more than 600 company owners and chief executives, the bureau said.
Those taken in for questioning included more than 40 chartered accountants, and more than 50 other people described as financiers and major investors behind a number of the companies involved in the probe, bureau officials said.
The investigation targeted suspected violations of the Company Act （公司法） and focused on verifying the companies’ registered capital and financial assets, thereby ensuring the legality and healthy state of market transactions among the business enterprises, officials said.
“Investigations had shown that many businesses forged accounting records, falsely claiming the injection of new investments and boosting of capital,” the statement said. “This was done to make companies’ finances more attractive to investors.”
Investigators also looked into suspected money laundering and illegal transfers of company assets into individual accounts as collateral for bank loans, which turned into bad debt.
Companies were also suspected of forging registered company capital records to procure tender contracts in government infrastructure projects, the bureau said.
The government is determined to crackdown on money laundering and illegal flows of capital from foreign sources, officials said, adding that they hope to ensure Taiwan’s stability in financial markets, as an assessment by the international agency Asia Pacific Group （APG） on Money Laundering is due early next year.
Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji （施俊吉） had said earlier this month at an APG-related meeting in Taipei that a wide range of measures had been implemented to deter money laundering and the government has resolved to stay off the APG watch list to protect the health and stability of the financial markets, and safeguard Taiwanese industries’ healthy economic development.
APG officials expressed concerns that Taiwan had been an easy target for money laundering schemes in recent years due to inadequate control mechanisms and lack of enforcement of financial laws, officials said.
Taiwan was the only state jurisdiction removed from the APG watch list in July, while Afghanistan, Brunei, Laos, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam remained on the list.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
