Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Three Taiwan nationals have been found guilty of engaging in business with a Chinese firm not permitted by the competent authority in Taiwan, according to the Hsinchu District Court which handed down its verdict in late April.
The three violated the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area by hiring Taiwanese to engage in unauthorized work for Beijing Tienmi Technology, a subsidiary of Beijing-based Xiaomi Corp., according to the verdict.
The verdict said the Taiwan office of the subsidiary was illegally operating businesses that are not permitted by the Taiwanese authorities, such as developing mobile phone chips.
To avoid Taiwan’s investigation into the company’s operations, Lin Bin (林斌), a co-founder of the Xiaomi Group, set up Yishing Technology Limited via one of the defendants, surnamed Yu (喻, a former Xiaomi CFO), in 2019.
Another defendant surnamed Pan (潘, the CTO of Tienmi’s Taiwan office) then transferred 24 research and developing staff from Tienmi’s Taiwan office to Yishing, where they worked for Tienmi.
On finding that Yishing faced an investigation, Yu told Lin that he would dissolve the company. Lin subsequently transferred the R&D staff to Altek Semiconductor Corp. to continue the illegal work.
Altek’s acting general manager surnamed Hsia (夏) helped Pan set up an office in Taipei for the staff to work in, aware that the business conducted by the company was unlawful.
Hsia was sentenced to six months, Yu to five months, and Pan to four months. All three sentences will be suspended for two years and can be commuted to a fine. However, Hsia is still required to pay NT$200,000 (US$6,181) to the treasury while Yu and Pan have to pay NT$150,000 each, within one year.
An investigation into Lin by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau is ongoing, the court said.
The verdict can be appealed.
(By Kuo Hsuan-wen and Wu Kuan-hsien)
Enditem/AW
