Source: All Taipei News

November 11, 2013

 

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office (TDPO) yesterday (November 10) subpoenaed Wei Chuan Foods Chairman Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and Chang Mei-feng (常梅峰), a former general manager of Ting Hsin International Corp.’s cooking oil division. Wei Chuan, a subsidiary of Ting Hsin, pulled its questionable products off the shelves after its use of adulterated cooking oil came to light, and the prosecutors considered Chang a key figure in the firm’s food scandal.

 

Upon arriving at the TDPO, Chang told reporters, "Tin Hsin is merely a victim of carelessness, not a perpetrator." While being questioned by the press, Chang admitted, "There were loopholes in our oil examination process. Not everything can be checked." (Translator’s Note: Tin Hsin previously stated that it had commissioned a private laboratory to inspect all its products and the results showed that none of the products contained the illegal additive chlorophyllin copper complex)

 

Prosecutors suspected that Wei Chuan Chairman Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) was aware that his firm had been purchasing adulterated cooking oil made by Tatung Chang Chi. However, Wei stated that he was only in charge of company policies and had not been familiar with procurement details, passing the blame to Chang Chiao-hua (張教華), General Manager of Wei Chuan. In the same way, Chang Mei-feng claimed that he had trusted that Tatung Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co. (大統長基食品) had imported olive oil from abroad, adding that he had been “victimized.” 

 

However, Kao Cheng-li (高振利), Chairman of Tatung Chang Chi, had admitted to the prosecutors that Chang Mei-feng was aware that its cooking oil purchased from Tatung Chang Chi was tainted. According to Kao, Ting Hsin was aware of the fact that the olive oil provided by his firm contained chlorophyllin copper complex. Prosecutors stated that they believed that Kao would cooperate in exchange for a lighter penalty, adding that they would solicit more information about Chang's involvement in the scandal. According to the prosecutors, Ting Shih and Wei Chuan had reaped large profits, and their claims of having been victimized just didn't add up, so they would seek to recover the illegal gains of the two firms.

 

The Changhua District Prosecutors Office (CDPO) also stated that over the last seven years, Tatung Chang Chi had been selling adulterated olive oil products labeled as 100% pure. According to the CDPO’s investigation, Tatung Chang Chi had sold 227.2 tons of such adulterated olive oil to Ting Hsin and 424 tons to Formosa Oilseed Processing Co., (福懋). The CDPO previously estimated Tatung Chang Chi's illegal gains at around NT$1.8 billion, but after discovering that the firm had been selling olive oil to Ting Hsin and Formosa Oilseed, the CDPO estimated that the amount might reach NT$2 billion and recommended that the court recover all of the newly estimated amount.