AN attempt by board members and employees of the Changhua City Fourth Credit Co-operative to block its takeover by the Co-operative Bank of Taiwan (CBT) collapsed yesterday.
The collapse followed a threat by the finance minister to dissolve its board of supervisors.
Finance Minister Lin Chen-kuo announced on Thursday that the bank would completely take over the credit co-operative and its seven branches.
The bank had been closed in the wake of a NT$7.9 billion (about HK$2.29 billion) run sparked by reports of high-level fraud.
A CBT investigation found evidence that the co-operative's general manager, Yen Chuan-shui, and other suspects, might have embezzled more than $2.8 billion for speculation in stock and real estate markets.
A team of CBT executives arrived at the cooperative's headquarters yesterday to transform it into a CBT branch but co-operative supervisors refused to reveal the codes for bank accounts or to open the vault.
