Cai Shangyue, the main suspect in the "Taiwan Version Ground Master" fraud case, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the first instance and 20 years in the second instance. (Photo by reporter Yang Xinhui)
Cai Shangyue, the actual head of the Quanrong Real Estate Company, was accused of colluding with lawyer and private notary Cai Hongshen, Taipei City police, district chiefs, clerks and others to forge a ghostwritten will of an elderly man living alone to transfer real estate in his name for profit. In three years, he obtained 11 houses and made a profit of 140 million yuan. The Taipei District Court of first instance sentenced Cai Shangyue to 14 years in prison for corruption, bribery, organized crime and other crimes, and Cai Hongshen was sentenced to 25 years. After the case was appealed, the High Court rejected Cai Hongshen's appeal on the 2nd of this month and upheld the 25-year sentence. Today, Cai Shangyue's sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison. The other "second boss" of the group was sentenced to 8 years in prison after the first trial of 10 years.
The case originated from a man named Shi living in the United States. After his mother passed away in 2018, Shi returned to Taiwan to register her death in 2022, and then returned to the United States. His return to Taiwan was delayed due to the epidemic, and he failed to register his inheritance. Unexpectedly, the inheritance was taken away by Cai Shangyue and others forged wills, and the whole case was exposed.
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Prosecutors investigated and found that Cai Shangyue was suspected of forming a syndicate to target inheritances that had no heirs or whose heirs lived overseas. The people involved included real estate developers, mayors, lawyers, police officers and court clerks. The group first obtains the management information of uninherited land and buildings from the Land Bureau, then obtains personal information through the police, household registration personnel, etc., and sends personnel to conduct on-site inspections.
Among them, You Lilun, who once caused controversy due to the filming of AV pornographic films and was admitted as a clerk after leaving his job, was accused of using his position to fill in the "Household Administration and Other Information Inquiry Form" to collect personal information, and collected bribes of 66,000 yuan per transaction. After the group locked in the target, it then forged a lease and asked an unsuspecting locksmith to open the door, search for the deceased's handwriting, household registration, land rights and other information, and use it to forge a ghostwritten will.
The group later arranged for members, village chiefs and others to serve as witnesses, legatees and ghostwriters of the will. Then lawyer Cai Hongshen stamped the seal and signature of a private notary on the appendix of the will, and used the fake will to transfer the movable and immovable properties to taxation, household administration, land administration and financial institutions. After the transfer was successful, Cai Shangyue decided to change the price and divide the illegal gains.
The prosecutors prosecuted 44 people in the whole case. In July last year, the Taipei District Court sentenced Cai Hongshen to 10 to 14 years in prison for eight crimes, including three crimes of accepting bribes in violation of his duties and five crimes of contract bribery. The eight crimes were combined and sentenced to 25 years in prison and deprived of public rights for three years. Cai Shangyue and others confessed and were sentenced to 14 years in prison. Group manager Wang Yudi was regarded as one of the founders of the criminal organization and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After the case was appealed, the High Court rejected Cai Hongshen's appeal on the 2nd of this month. The remaining defendants, Xu Zhengkai, the mayor of Yongle District, New Taipei City, was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison; Deng Chang'an, the mayor of Anhe District, maintained his sentence to 2 years and 6 months; New Taipei District Court clerk You Lilun maintained his sentence to 2 years and August; Cai Shangyue's mother Liu Meiqin was sentenced to 1 year and 7 months in prison, but Wang Yudi and Cai Shangyue were partially postponed.
The High Court today commuted the sentence to Cai Shangyue to 20 years in prison, deprivation of public rights for five years, and confiscation of 22,206,705 yuan in criminal proceeds; Wang Yuti commuted to eight years in prison, deprivation of public rights for two years, and confiscated an underground parking space in Taipei City.
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