A lawyer who also served as a notary was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraudulently acquiring unclaimed inheritances totaling over NT$149.25 million (US$5.15 million), the Taipei District Court ruled yesterday.
The court also handed down a 14-year prison sentence to the land developer who recruited the lawyer, identified as Tsai Hung-shen (蔡鴻燊), into the scam ring.
Tsai, 39, was found guilty not only of forgery and fraud, but also of violating the Anti-Corruption Act for committing the crimes as a public officer, having notarized the fake wills used to obtain unclaimed inheritances, the court said.
Photo: Wang Meng-lun, Taipei Times
The lawyer was indicted by prosecutors in November 2024 as one of six main suspects in the scam ring started by land developer Tsai Shang-yueh (蔡尚岳), who first learned about unclaimed inheritances in New Taipei in 2021, court documents showed.
The developer, who had previously been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for unrelated crimes, confessed to the scam involving the lawyer while serving his sentence, according to the court.
The other four main suspects include a police officer, a court clerk in New Taipei City, an employee at a household registration office, and a friend of the land developer.
The three government workers were found guilty of providing information on unclaimed inheritances and were sentenced to prison terms of four years, two years and eight months, and two years and 10 months, respectively. The friend of the land developer received a 10-year sentence on charges related to organized crime.
An additional 38 accomplices were found guilty of either pretending to be witnesses to the fake wills, or beneficiaries listed in the fake wills, according to the court.
The verdicts can be appealed.
One of the unlawful claims made by the land developer, Tsai Shang-yueh, was at the center of a civil case ruled on by the Taipei District Court in February 2024, in which Mega International Commercial Bank was ordered to pay the son of a deceased woman her savings of NT$1,017,556 plus interest.
The bank initially paid the money to Tsai in June 2022 after he presented what he claimed was the will of the woman who died in December 2018, notarized by the lawyer, Tsai Hung-shen.
The bank paid the money in the form of a check to Tsai Shang-yueh, despite notifying the son that the signature on the will did not match the one the bank had in its database.
The court ruled against the bank at the time for overlooking the questionable signature and a lack of her son’s presence.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS