Slovak company dragged into stock exchange fraud

The name of the Slovak pharmaceutical company Chirana Group has been misused by a fictitious Taiwanese company in a case of stock exchange fraud involving €30 million, according to the Hospodárske Noviny daily. The Taiwanese biotech firm Zodic Light World Technology (ZLWT) boosted its position on the stock exchange by claiming that it had formed a business partnership with Chirana Group, calling the latter a 'European medical equipment leader' with a yearly turnover of €1 billion. Hospodárske Noviny reported that the bubble which Zodic managed to create has finally burst, with chairman Lo Hsu-liang being arrested by the police. "We've never cooperated, communicated or done business with this Taiwanese firm. We have nothing to do with this whatsoever", said Ján Brkal, who is a business director of M.O.C., the official holder of the Chirana trademark. Furthermore, Zodic's success on the stock exchange was indirectly aided by the head of the Slovak Economic and Cultural Office Taipei Michal Kováč Jr., who, for example, attended the inking of a document that was supposed to secure €500 million for Zodic and Chirana. The entire case is now subject to a police investigation. The China Times and China Daily newspapers have reported that Kováč Jr. has also been interrogated by the police. The Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry has rejected these claims, stressing that representatives of the Slovak Economic and Cultural Office Taipei, including its head, are not associated with the investigation.