Lawyer receives 25 years in jail for unclaimed inheritance scams

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) 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 Friday.

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.

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, 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.