TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Jeansmaker Chen Shih-hsiu (陳仕修) was freed on NT$5 million (US$160,000) bail Saturday morning (July 27) amid allegations he took more than NT$1.4 billion (US$47.8 million) in National Development Fund (NDF) money to help a Chinese firm control his own.
The allegations were first made more than a year ago by New Power Party lawmaker Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
Chen used the funds to have his company Roo Hsing Co. (如興紡織) take over a Hong Kong-registered affiliate of a Chinese firm, JD United Holdings (玖地), but in reality the opposite was true, with the supposed target company receiving Taiwanese government funds in order to infiltrate a Taiwanese business, Huang alleged. JD United Holdings was originally five times larger than Roo Hsing, the Liberty Times reported.
The Taiwanese company, founded in 1977, is the largest jeans-processing firm in Taiwan. The money it had received from the NDF was the first issued by the body under a new support program for industrial innovation in traditional sectors, according to the Liberty Times.
Last year, Huang investigated the case and found the head of JD had previously led a government-run body in China, showing the deal with Roo Hsing amounted to Chinese state infiltration of the Taiwanese textile sector with the bill being footed by the Taiwanese government.
