TAIWANESE REBAR SCANDAL SPREADS TO DSC

The scandal surrounding Taiwan-based Rebar Group and its subsidiaries, which included Union Insurance, has spread to the regulatory Financial Services Commission (FSC). Susan Chang, vice-chairwoman of the FSC, said that she had been investigated for permitting a company owned by the Rebar Asia Pacific Group to continue lending money to other Rebar companies, despite their failure to repay loans. In March this year Rebar executives were accused of embezzling the equivalent of US$1.8bn from insurance, financial and other companies within the group. Ms Chang acknowledged that officials under her guidance had helped approve the Great China Bills Finance Corp make loans in the 1990s, but she said that this was in line with government policy to help companies that were suffering from problems because of the economic slump of the time. Octogenarian Wang You-theng, Rebar chairman and founder, fled Taiwan before the investigation into the conglomerate began in January, and is currently in detention at an immigration holding centre in San Pedro, California. Union Insurance, one of the companies said to have been used to prop up other Rebar operations, is now majority owned by Tsai Eng Meng, head of locally based Want Want Holdings. He bought a 75% stake in Union at the end of last month for NT$1.5bn ($45.8m).