TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A former cashier of Taiwan’s top intelligence agency on the run for 25 years after being accused of embezzling NT$190 million (US$6.18 million) will no longer be prosecuted, the Taipei District Court ruled Saturday.

While the case against former National Security Bureau Colonel Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍) now exceeds the statute of limitations, appeals against the court ruling are still possible, per CNA. Liu, aged 70, is still wanted for crossing over to the enemy side though.

The cashier was in charge of secret funds at the intelligence agency. As he knew supervision was minimal, he embezzled funds and underreported interest payments, according to prosecutors.

When the media revealed his activities, he boarded a fishing trawler in Hsinchu on Sep. 3, 2000, and arrived in China the same day. He later reportedly traveled via Thailand to Canada.

Liu would have faced life in prison, but later changes in the law shortened the jail term to 20 years. As no verdict had been possible, the statute of limitations added five years to the prison term.

The National Security Bureau said Liu had printed out several secret intelligence files and taken them with him to China. He not only handed the documents over to officials, but also helped them interpret and analyze their contents. In 2002, the former cashier also passed on confidential information about the funding, use, and targets of special diplomatic projects to the media, the bureau said.