Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) Renowned film director Liu Jia-chang and his wife — a former movie actress under the stage name Chen Chen — voluntarily returned to Taiwan from Hong Kong Friday to face the law, as the two have been wanted on suspicions of embezzling funds from two private art companies.

Liu and his wife, Chang Chia-chen, have been on the wanted list since May 2007. Immigration records show that they left Taiwan in 2001 for Hong Kong, with their whereabouts unknown ever since.

According to the National Immigration Agency, the couple informed judicial authorities that they would return to Taiwan Friday to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation regarding their involvement in a joint investment case that ended with their partners accusing them of siphoning funds from their two art companies.

Liu, accompanied by his wife, showed up at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with an expired Republic of China passport. They were questioned by immigration officials at the airport and then transferred to the Public Prosecutors Office of the Taipei District Court for further questioning concerning their alleged offenses.

Liu said that he and his wife decided to come back to face the law because Taiwan’s judicial system had returned to normal.

He added that he and his wife’s return to Taiwan is proof that they have full confidence in the judiciary.

According to the prosecutors, Liu and his wife raised NT$619.92 million (US$17.71 million) from shareholders of two private art companies in August 1999 under the pretext of increasing the companies’ paid-in capital.

A month later, however, Liu used NT$693 million of the companies’ funds to buy a property worth only NT$388 million from his wife and wired the money to his wife’s foreign bank account.

The transaction harmed the interests of Liu’s partners and he had been subpoenaed repeatedly by the prosecutors office to be questioned on the breach of trust allegations.

After repeated attempts to summon the couple to appear in court failed, the Taipei District Court issued a warrant for their arrest, which was to remain valid until Dec. 25, 2018.

Liu, 68, was a well-known music composer before becoming a film director. He has written nearly 2,000 songs, including 200 that became popular hits in the 1970s and 1980s.

His wife, 60, was an award-winning actress who divorced her first husband of two years — a movie actor in Hong Kong — in 1976 and married Liu in 1978. (By Han Nai-kuo)