High Court quashes another conviction of ex-Mega Financial Chairman Tsai

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court on Thursday overturned another conviction of former Mega Financial Holding Co. Chairman Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才), who has been embroiled in a series of legal battles since the company's banking unit was fined for compliance issues in the United States in 2016.

Tsai and his co-defendant Wang Chi-pang (王起梆), a former chief secretary at Mega Financial, were both found guilty of forgery related to fake documents submitted to the New York State Department of Financial Services in its investigation into Mega International Commercial Bank's branch in New York in 2016.

The bank was fined US$180 million in August 2016 for "serious deficiencies" in its "compliance program," which U.S. regulators described as a "flagrant disregard of anti-money laundering laws."

Tsai resigned in March 2016, but the fine issued by U.S. regulators led to several investigations, including one by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, into his work at Mega Financial in Taiwan.

In December 2016, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office indicted Tsai and Wang for alleged forgery, money laundering, insider trading and breach of trust, in an investigation into questionable companies they had set up.

In November 2020, the Taipei District Court acquitted Tsai and Wang of money laundering, insider trading and breach of trust, but convicted them of forgery, based on documents they had submitted to U.S. regulators, claiming they were minutes of a board meeting of one of the companies they had established.

On Thursday, judges at the High Court quashed Tsai's conviction, citing a lack of evidence to support the argument that he knew the documents had been forged. Wang's three-month jail term was cut to two months.

The High Court also upheld the lower court's acquittal on other charges, rejecting the appeal filed by prosecutors. All of the rulings on Thursday can be appealed.

In the series of criminal and civil legal proceedings, along with regulatory decisions, Tsai has come out mostly unscathed.

Last December, following Tsai's appeal, the High Court overturned his conviction and six-month prison sentence for allegedly taking kickbacks from a company that secured loans from Mega International Commercial Bank in October 2023.

The Financial Supervisory Commission's decision to remove Tsai from the Mega Financial board in September 2016 was thrown out by the Supreme Administrative Court in November 2019, which said that the financial regulator's decision, targeting Tsai only, would have little impact on Mega Financial.

However, in November 2022, the High Court ordered Tsai to pay damages of NT$50 million (US$1.64 million), in a civil case filed by Mega International Commercial Bank to recover the fines it had paid to U.S. regulators. The case had earlier been rejected by the Taipei District Court.

Both Tsai and the bank appealed the High Court ruling, and the Supreme Court in July 2023 ordered the High Court to hold a retrial.