Eldest son of fugitive tycoon arrested over Rebar scandal in Taiwan

Prosecutors yesterday detained another son of a fugitive Taiwanese tycoon over a massive financial scandal that has rocked the island.

Wang Ling-tai, acting chairman of Asia-Pacific Broadband Telecom (APBT) and the eldest son of Rebar Asia-Pacific Group founder Wang You-theng, 80, was held incommunicado following marathon questioning overnight by prosecutors, a spokesman said.

He was being detained on charges for breach of trust and other irregularities.

Taipei District Prosecutors Office spokesman Fred Lin Chin-tsun said prosecutors also detained APBT senior executives Chen Ming-hai and Hsu Cheng-hsiung, over their alleged roles in irregular fund transfers between the telecoms firm and the Rebar group since 2002.

'We decided to place them in custody to prevent them from colluding ... over their testimony,' Mr Lin said, adding the suspects all claimed they acted in accordance with the instructions of the group's founder, but their accounts contradicted each other in many ways.

Mr Lin said the investigation had revealed that since 2002 APBT, a telecommunications arm of the Rebar group, had channelled at least NT$25 billion (HK$5.9 billion) to the 50-year-old conglomerate through purchases of so-called corporate bonds from 53 group subsidiaries, a number of which were merely firms on paper.