Liao Shiqiang, a senior specialist in the financial department of the stock listed company "Huahan Technology". During his tenure, he was addicted to online gambling and needed money. He stole the company's funds and took advantage of the safekeeping account seal to privately stamp the company seal, forge withdrawal receipts, and falsify bank accounts. According to the statement, a total of more than 99.25 million yuan was stolen during the five-year period. The Shilin District Court recently sentenced Liao Nan to five years and eight months for four crimes including business embezzlement and forgery of private documents. It also sought to confiscate the unpaid criminal proceeds of more than 97.88 million yuan.
The judgment pointed out that Liao Nan has been working at Huahan Technology as a senior specialist in the Fund Management Section of the Finance Department since March 2017. He is responsible for the bank account withdrawals, payment of accounts, petty cash custody and fund dispatching of the company and its subsidiary "Huaying Intelligence". During his five-year tenure, he took advantage of the opportunity when the two chief financial officers and management staff were not at their seats, or temporarily gave their seals to him for safekeeping, and secretly took the large and small seals of Hua Han's, Hua Ying's Beijing Bank, Shanghai Bank and other accounts and went to the bank to withdraw cash from the counter. The proceeds were all used for personal purposes. Most of them were used for betting on gaming websites, buying sports lottery tickets, paying off personal debts, and remitting to Vietnamese friends. Only a small amount was used for company expenses.
In order to avoid the exposure of his conduct, Liao Nan also secretly took the seal of the company's bank foreign currency account, forged remittance applications, and remitted money between the accounts to make the actual bank balance consistent with the figures on the company's books; he also used computer graphics software to alter bank statements and annual letters. He combined the bank seal pattern onto the blank letter certificate, modified the balance of the online banking account, and submitted it to an accounting firm for verification to cover up the funding gap; he also pretended to be a bank clerk and answered verification calls from the accounting firm at the Beijing Bank branch in an attempt to get through.
Liao Nan's trick of stealing money went unimpeded for five years. It was not until March 21, 2022, that the accountant received the real confirmation information from Jingcheng Bank and found that the actual balance in the account was only 40,296 US dollars (approximately NT$1.28 million), which was a full US$3 million short of the 3,040,296 yuan (approximately NT$97.28 million) recorded on the account, and immediately notified Huahan Company.
Liao Nan knew that the incident had been revealed and could no longer hide it. At about 3 pm on the 22nd of the same month, he took away the petty cash in 9 foreign currencies including euros, renminbi, Japanese yen and US dollars that he had kept in his office, totaling more than NT$640,000. He also withdrew NT$1 million from Hua Ying's account, and fled to Xiamen, China, on the morning of the 23rd. After the financial director of Huahan Company became aware of the incident, he immediately reported the case to the New Taipei City Investigation Division of the Investigation Bureau.
Due to the severe COVID-19 epidemic, Liao Nan returned to Taiwan in 2023 and was prosecuted by the prosecutor. During the trial at the Shilin District Court, Liao Nan pleaded guilty, but Huahan Company could not forgive him. Only part of the seized cash was returned to the company, leaving 97.88 million yuan. The collegial panel sentenced him to 4 years in February and October each for 2 business embezzlement crimes, 7 months each for 1 crime of forging private documents, and 1 crime of using altered private documents. The combined sentence should be 5 years and August, and more than 97.88 million yuan was confiscated. Can be appealed.
