Ex-FSC bureau head gets 53-month sentence in insider trading case

Taipei, Aug. 5 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court has sentenced a former Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) official to four years and five months in prison in connection with a stock-rigging case dating back two decades.

The ruling was handed down Tuesday in the fifth retrial of Lee Chin-cheng (李進誠), who served as director-general of the FSC's Examination Bureau in 2005. The court reduced his sentence by one month from the previous ruling.

In addition, Lee must wear an electronic monitoring device until Aug. 5, 2026, during which time he is required to take and submit facial photos at regular intervals, the court said.

The ruling can be appealed, suggesting the prolonged legal battle may not yet be over.

Lee, a former prosecutor, was first sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2005 by the Taipei District Court for violating the Anti-Corruption Act in an insider trading case involving Power Quotient International shares.

He was found guilty of leaking details of a government investigation into the company to Lin Ming-da (林明達), who used the information to profit from trading Power Quotient stock.

Lee received his lightest sentence in September 2020, when the High Court reduced his jail term to six months, which could have been commuted to a fine at NT$900 (US$30) per day. That ruling, however, was later overturned by the Supreme Court and sent back for retrial.