Candy Tang begins serving prison term

Tang showed up at the Taipei District Prosecutors Office around noon, and was then transported to a women's prison in Taoyuan at about 2 p.m., the Central News Agency reported.

She told the press at the prosecutors' office that she was not afraid to go to jail, but vowed to fight on to prove her innocence by filing an extraordinary appeal with the justice ministry.

Prosecutors said Tang was supposed to go to jail Wednesday, but instead submitted a request to postpone the start of the imprisonment on health reasons.

On the same day, she went to the office of the highest government watchdog Control Yuan to lodge a complaint.

Tang's younger sister, Hsin-ru, who was also convicted in the same fraud case, already began her 16-month term on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said they rejected the Alexander founder's request after examining her medical history sent by a hospital where she had had a surgery on her back recently.

Her doctors determined that the imprisonment would pose no immediate danger to her life, prosecutors said.

The Alexander Health Clubs that the Tang founded was one of the most successful gym businesses in Taiwan when it suddenly closed down all branches without giving prior notice to its members or employees in 2007.

The court determined that the Tang sisters defrauded the club's members out of membership fees.

The club had about 10,000 members and 2,000 employees when it went out of business.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email