NOL says Taiwan unit staff among graft indictees

SINGAPORE, June 19 (Reuters) - Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) (NEPS.SI) said on Friday three employees and a former employee of its APL Taiwan unit are among 46 people indicted for alleged corruption and fraud. "None of the NOL group of companies, including APL, has been indicted on such charges," the company said in a statement to the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Taiwanese prosecutors said on Thursday they indicted 46 people from the island's largest port and from eight shipping lines on charges of inflating data in an apparent effort to raise the port's global ranking. [ID:nTP24457]

"The company has a firm policy and takes a serious view against, and does not condone, corruption and fraud," NOL said.

The Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau director general and other officials were indicted in recent days on charges they paid the freight lines more than $9 million since 2007 to exaggerate shipping volumes, said Chung Chung-hsiao, spokesman with the Kaohsiung prosecutor's office.

Kaohsiung's port, the world's third-busiest in the late 1990s, has dropped to No.8 as ports in nearby China have expanded due to rapid economic growth. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Nopporn Wong-Anan & Ian Geoghegan)