Taichung Lawyer Defended Rider of Fraudulent Group and Sentenced to 6 Months in Prison for Passing Investigation File to Funder

The Taichung District Court sentenced lawyer surnamed Chen to six months in prison and a fine of NT$100,000. He was ordered to perform hard labor and fined. He can appeal.

To defend the driver of a fraudulent group, the lawyer actually sent the prosecution documents to the financial backers behind the scenes! Lawyer surnamed Chen was appointed by the driver surnamed Tsai to defend the case, but the legal fees were paid by the upstream financial sponsor surnamed Wu. The prosecutor found that Chen downloaded the investigation documents through the Judicial Yuan's filing system, and then used LINE to send it to Wu, who had no right to read it. The Taichung District Court today sentenced Chen to six months in prison for violating the personal information law and fined him NT$100,000. He was ordered to perform hard labor and was fined. He can appeal.

The whole case originated from the Taichung Prosecutor's Office investigating a virtual currency fraud group. After a man surnamed Tsai was arrested as a driver, the financial backer surnamed Wu behind the scenes paid for and appointed lawyer Chen to defend Tsai in September 2024. In November of the same year, the Taichung District Prosecutor's Office prosecuted Tsai on suspicion of fraud. Unexpectedly, the evidence that should have been protected by the legal profession actually flowed from the hands of the defender to people outside the case.

The prosecutor found that in order to continue to collect defense fees from Wu Nan for Cai Nan’s trial, Lawyer Chen downloaded two electronic documents including the investigation of Cai’s case and the petition for detention through the Judicial Yuan’s online review system on November 18, 2024, and then sent them directly to Wu Nan using LINE, leaving a message saying, “The above is the review information for your reference. Examination" and asked whether the appointment should be continued. He believed that only a few people could obtain relevant documents in accordance with legal procedures. When the case occurred, the case had not yet entered the trial process, and the content had not yet been made public in court. In particular, the analysis of the flow of virtual currency still involves the tracing of electronic wallet holders and other accomplices, and the outflow of documents may affect subsequent investigations.

Chen admitted that he had sent the evidence to Wu Nan, but argued that he wanted to use it to confirm whether Wu was willing to continue to pay the defense fee. The prosecutor filed an indictment after the investigation. After the trial, the Taichung District Court found that he violated the Personal Data Protection Act and was sentenced to 6 months in prison and a fine of 100,000 yuan. Both the prison sentence and the fine were subject to a fine or hard labor in accordance with the law. The whole case is still open to appeal.