Taiwan playboy to appeal 80-year sentence for secretly filming more than a dozen women.

A well-known Taiwanese playboy vowed to appeal his conviction Wednesday after he was sentenced to nearly 80 years in jail for raping and secretly filming more than a dozen women.

Justin Lee, a 29-year-old frequent fixture on Taiwan's party scene, was convicted of sexually assaulting 14 women and secretly taping them and five others, Taiwan's High Court said.

"Mr Lee denied the charges of drugging and raping the women," Lee's lawyer, Leo Tzou, told AFP.

"We regret that the court did not take into account some of the evidence more favourable for him and the sentencing was much more heavier than we had expected."

Lee insisted that the acts were consensual and will appeal the ruling, Tzou said.

According to the verdict, Lee, the son of a wealthy businessman formerly on the board of the financial group Yuanta Holdings, brought the victims who were often drunk from night clubs or bars to his apartment.

There, it said, he sexually assaulted them and recorded the acts with unidentified taping devices and his mobile phone.

"Lee disregarded the friendship and trust between him and the victims to sexually assault them when they were mentally or physically incapable and were unable to resist," the High Court said in a statement. "His crimes are severe."

The court imposed a sentence of 79 years and seven months. Lee was previously sentenced to 18 years and six months by a district court on nine counts of sexual assault.

However, Lee would only have to serve 30 years under the law, the court said.

Lee was also ordered to compensate the victims a total of Tw$27.75 million ($925,000), the court said in a statement.

Lee was visibly shaken and glaring with his mouth open in disbelief when he heard the verdict, the Taipei Times newspaper quoted witnesses as saying.

Lee's case was headline news in Taiwan in 2012 after local media reported that he had allegedly made sex videos of some models and actresses after drugging them.

He failed to answer a summons for questioning that year but turned himself in after going into hiding for 20 days and has been detained since.

Lee's father resigned from his post as a director at Yuanta Holdings after the charges against his son were announced in 2012.

How to pay off debt without getting a loan

MANILA, Philippines – Getting out of huge debt is a long and difficult process because as of now, there is no easy way to consolidate debt in the country, financial adviser Salve Duplito said.

Duplito said since there is no centralized loan database, banks have no way to accurately gauge just how indebted a person is, making it hard for them to consolidate debt.

The Credit Information Corporation is in the process of setting up a database, but it will be up not until two years from now.

In the absence of a consolidation process, Duplito said these are some ways to get out of debt without resorting to taking out loans:

Talk to each bank and ask for a loan restructuring

“However, it’s highly likely that you will not get lower interest payment terms, just some breathing room to a longer payment schedule. But do negotiate, you won’t lost anything by trying,” Duplito said.

List down all assets that the family can sell, from land to watches

“Every little thing counts. Think of it as a way of de-cluttering,” said Duplito.

Create a mindset that debt can be conquered

"As long as you are not defeated in your mind, the finances will follow," said Duplito.

“Don’t let debt take your life away. The way out of it is painful and will take a lot of time, but remember that the first battle you have to win is within your mind. The happy thought is that that battlefield is something you can control,” she added.

Filipino billionaire: Not worried about slowdownFilipino billionaire: Not worried about slowdown

Manila - Teresita Sy-Coson, one of the country's most powerful women, isn't daunted by the prospects of an economic slowdown, despite expectations for weaker growth in the Philippines this year.In fact, she sees opportunities.

According to vice chairman of SM Investments Teresita Sy-Coson "The Philippines economy has always been the same. It's just that time it attracted a lot of attention,". "This has given us a lot of benefits like low credit cost and also the stock market excitement [which] are good for business."

Last week, the World Bank lowered its growth projections for the Southeast Asian country to 6.4 percent from 6.6 percent, citing low government spending and possible monetary policy tightening from the U.S. Federal Reserve as risks for the economy which is still recovering after last year's Typhoon Haiyan. 

However, Sy-Coson remains confident that her business - one of Philippines' well-known family-run conglomerates - will not be impacted: "We hope to have a higher double digit growth this year. We just have to work harder."

This attitude is perhaps a result of her identity. She is the eldest child of the country's richest man, Chinese-Filipino retail magnate Henry Sy, who founded the SM Group, which invests in numerous sectors like retail, real estate and gaming.

"We grew up in a very demanding environment. Dad expects us to prove ourselves... so my siblings and I worked hard to reach what we have today and I guess we have to continue working hard to maintain it," said Sy-Coson, who was named as one of Asia's most powerful businesswomen by Forbes in 2014.

Dubbed by the media as the heir to the Sy patriarch, the 63-year-old is known for transforming the family's small retail and savings bank, Banco de Oro (BDO), into the country's largest lender. However she said the process was "a challenging period that I would not wish on anyone," particularly when her decision in 2005 to acquire a stake into Equitable, the third-largest bank then, encountered strong resistance.

"I did not expect so much backlash just because I'm not one of the big boys. It was a very difficult process but I thought if I have to do it, I will do it right," she said. In 2007, BDO merged with Equitable to form Banco de Oro Unibank and by the following year became the Philippines' biggest financial player in terms of loans and deposits.

Moving forward, the BDO Unibank will play a huge role in Sy-Coson's pursuit for rapid growth.

"We'll like to bulk up so right now we are looking as to where the bank should go in the Southeast Asian region [over the] next two to three years. Whether there are opportunities to be a part of another bank or have a bank that will have more working arrangement with us," she said.

Sy-Coson, who is also advisor to the board of directors for SMIC's retail affiliate SM Prime Holdings, also has her sights set on the mainland's retail space.

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With five shopping malls in China now, SM Prime plans to invest another $200 million to expand in the world's second-largest economy. But it is taking the unbeaten path of steering clear of first-tier cities and heading for less developed provinces.

"We are going to grow in China but as of now, it's not going to be a rush. We want to be steady," Sy-Coson said. "China is a big country, so we are looking into the ones that can bring us more bottom-line at this point. We are selective."