Taiwan tycoon to serve 5 years and 9 months in prison for food safety scandal
台灣大亨因食品安全醜聞確定判入監5年9個月
| High Court to reconsider 45 other charges
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Wei Ying-chun (魏應充), one of four brothers owning the Ting Hsin International Group, will have to serve five years and nine months in prison for his part in food safety scandals involving cooking oil. The Supreme Court on Wednesday (November 6) found Wei guilty on seven counts which can no longer be appealed. He was also guilty on 19 other counts, though he can avoid prison sentences for those by paying fines, the Central News Agency reported. A further 45 counts will have to be retried at the High Court level on the Supreme Court’s orders. Wei had been sentenced to 15 years on all charges by the High Court, following a not-guilty verdict by a District Court. The cases centered on the import of low-grade oil from Vietnam, which Wei’s Ting Hsin repackaged and sold as cooking oil fit for human consumption. The affair was one of many food safety scandals to break into the open in 2013 and 2014, some including false labeling of cheap oil as more expensive olive oil, or the use of oil residues and oil products for animal consumption as cooking oil. The Ting Hsin tycoon earlier served more than 500 days out of a two-year prison sentence for another scandal, involving the mixing of palm oil with olive and grapeseed oil, a process which reportedly earned his company NT$60 million (US$1.9 million). Following Wednesday’s Supreme Court verdict, prosecutors have launched measures to prevent Wei from leaving the country, according to CNA. The Ting Hsin International empire includes significant food holdings in China, as well as food and real estate in Taiwan, and once owned 37 percent of Taipei 101. |
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| Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2019-11-06 |
