Taiwan tycoon Wang faces 28-year jail term for embezzlement

Prosecutors on Monday sought a 28-year jail term for the head of Taiwan's Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG) for allegedly embezzling more than a billion US dollars in a massive financial scandal.
EMG chairman Gary Wang was indicted by the Taipei District Court following a two-month investigation into the scandal involving 41.2 billion Taiwan dollars (1.25 billion US). What "Wang Ling-lin (Gary Wang), his father, and the other suspects did has led to social unrest and financial woes," Chief Prosecutor Lin Chin-tsun told reporters while reading the indictment paper.
"Furthermore, he (Gary Wang) has shown no regret and tried to destroy evidence... therefore, prosecutors decided to seek a prison term of 28 years and a fine of one billion Taiwan dollars against him," he said.
Wang and his father Wang You-then, the fugitive founder of the Rebar Group from which EMG broke away, have jointly embezzled 37.9 billion Taiwan dollars from the Rebar Group, according to the 437-page indictment. Gary Wang has repeatedly denied allegations that he played a key role in the scandal to hit Rebar, one of the island's largest conglomerates. Separately, the prosecutors said that Wang and a group of 31 other top EMG executives had embezzled 3.3 billion Taiwan dollars from EMG.
The prosecutors also sought jail terms for the 31, including a 10-year jail term for Wang's wife Tsai Hsueh-ching, formerly a popular singer, on charges of violating the stock transaction law and betrayal of trust.
The 80-year-old Wang You-then had previously been indicted with 106 others for alleged roles in the Rebar scandal, for violating securities, accounting and finance laws.
Prosecutors had demanded a 30-year jail term and a fine of 1.7 billion Taiwan dollars for Wang You-then as well as a 28-year jail term and a 700-million-dollar fine for his wife Chin Shih-ying.
Wang You-then and his wife fled to China and later the US in December last year shortly before the group's financial troubles came to light. The Rebar crisis became public in early January when two of its companies filed bankruptcy reorganisation applications in court.
The move sparked a run on The Chinese Bank, whose customers rushed to withdraw 50 billion dollars in just a few days despite the government's repeated appeals for calm.