Former New Taipei Village Chief Jailed for Stealing Elderly Woman's Property Worth Nearly NT$10 Million

A former "six-term" village chief in New Taipei City, Hong Jia-ren, who had previously received an award for outstanding village chief, has been sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison. He was found guilty of jointly forging private documents and defrauding an elderly, ill resident of nearly NT$10 million in property.

Hong learned that the resident, Ms. Gong, had lost her property ownership certificate. He then colluded with Zhou Yu-xian, a university professor, to exploit this situation. Under the guise of helping her apply for a replacement certificate, they used a "sandwiching" technique to insert a deed of sale agreement into official documents. This created a false impression that Ms. Gong had agreed to sell her property to settle a debt with Zhou.

Prosecutors investigated and found that Ms. Gong, who suffered from long-term dialysis and was in poor health, had approached Hong for assistance in replacing her lost certificate. However, after obtaining her seal, identification, and other necessary documents, Hong conspired with Zhou to fabricate a debt of NT$9.17 million owed to Zhou. They then falsely claimed Ms. Gong agreed to transfer her property to settle this fabricated debt.

Hong deceived Ms. Gong into signing various forged documents, including a sales agreement and a letter of consent, by claiming they were necessary for the certificate application. Zhou then used these forged documents to transfer the property to his own name. Later, Hong found a buyer, Wu Shui-mu, and arranged the sale for NT$9.3 million, with the property to be registered under Wu's children's names. The fraud was discovered when Wu attempted to evict Ms. Gong after the lease expired. The court found both Hong and Zhou's actions to be malicious, causing significant harm to the elderly victim, who now faces the risk of homelessness. Wu was also convicted for knowingly purchasing stolen goods, as the transaction showed clear irregularities.