Chinatrust' Jeffrey Jr. Koo faces 9-year sentence

Ex-vice chairman charged with insider trading and banking regulation breaching over the firm's planned acquisition of Mega Financial.

A former executive of Chinatrust Financial, Taiwan's top credit card issuer, has been convicted of insider dealing and has been sentenced to nine years in jail, according to court documents on Monday.

Jeffrey Jr. Koo, the ex-vice chairman of Chinatrust, was charged with insider trading and breaching of banking regulation over the firm's planned acquisition of state-run Mega Financial in 2006, press materials from the Taiwan Taipei District Court showed.

The planned merger, which took place in the consolidation of Taiwan's financial sector, had failed and Koo had stepped down.

Koo can appeal the ruling, the documents showed.

View the full story in Reuters.