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Lien Hui-hsin probed
by prosecutors
HOT WATER: Former vice president Lien Chan’s
daughter could face up to two years in jail for violating the Pharmaceutical
Affairs Act if she is Geneherb’s chief executive
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Lien Hui-hsin arrives at the
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday for questioning.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Lien Hui-hsin (連惠心), daughter of former
vice president Lien Chan (連戰), was listed as a defendant yesterday for her role
in a case involving her investment in a nutrition supplement company whose
weight-loss pills were found to contain unauthorized drugs.
Previously listed as a witness, Lien Hui-hsin was subpoenaed yesterday evening
as a defendant by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office after days of
speculation about her role at Geneherbs Biotechnology Co (菁茵荋生物科技), whose
weight-loss product Wellslim Plus+ was confirmed to contain banned substance,
cetilistat, a lipase inhibitor designed to treat obesity.
The questioning was still ongoing at press time last night.
Her role has been in question since Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei
City Councilor Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) first raised questions about the pills
last week.
Lien Hui-hsin at first said she was only an endorser for the company and denied
any involvement in the management of the firm.
After Juan and DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) broke the news about her NT$15
million (US$510,000) investment in the company as the majority shareholder with
a 70 percent stake, Lien Hui-hsin later acknowledged the investment on Sunday in
an interview, but insisted that her managerial role was only nominal and she did
not run the company on a daily basis.
She is facing a sentence of up to two years for violation of the Pharmaceutical
Affairs Act (藥事法) for using cetilistat in Geneherb’s products if her role as
chief executive of the company is confirmed.
Yesterday morning the prosecutors’ office raided the offices of Wellcare
Pharmaceutical Co (云丰生技醫藥), the manufacturer of Wellslim Plus+, for a second
time, as well as the offices of a Wellcare subsidiary.
Agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau questioned three
defendants — Geneherbs general manager Tseng Hsin-yi (曾心怡), Wellcare chairman
Huang Chen-kang (黃振康) and Wellcare research and development director Yeh
Mei-keng (葉枚耕) — before transferring them to the Taipei District Prosecutors’
Office for further investigation.
Meanwhile, prosecutors cited a report by the Taipei City Goverment’s Department
of Health saying that 7Slim, another Geneherbs product, was also found to
contain cetilistat.
In the interview on Sunday, Lien Hui-hsin questioned the timing of the probe as
well as the extensive media coverage, saying that political influence could be a
factor, while Lien Chan also came to his daughter’s defense on Tuesday, saying
he did not want to see “any improper force influencing the authorities’ handling
of the case.”
There have been rumors that the relationship between the Lien family and
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has soured because of Ma’s perceived passiveness
toward further investigations into the shooting of former Taipei EasyCard Corp
chairman Sean Lien (連勝文), Lien Chan’s son, during a campaign rally in November
2010, as well as the election-eve shooting of then-president Chen Shui-bian
(陳水扁) and then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004, when they were
running in a presidential election against Lien Chan and People First Party
Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
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