A Taichung court has sentenced a man to 18 months in prison for forging marriage documents in a case involving the inheritance of a teenage millionaire who died just hours after marrying the accused.
On May 4, 2023, an 18-year-old man surnamed Lai (賴) was found dead after falling from a building. The incident immediately raised suspicions of foul play because the young man had been persuaded just hours earlier to marry the suspect, surnamed Hsia (夏).
On Friday, June 28, the court found that Hsia coerced the teenager into signing marriage documents under false pretenses, and the judge criticized Hsia for abusing Taiwan’s marriage registration system for financial gain. Due to the seriousness of the case, Hsia was sentenced to one year and six months in prison.
Following Lai’s death, his mother revealed that her son had been targeted by Hsia and others to seize his inheritance, which was worth nearly NT$500 million (US$15.4 million). Lai’s friends and classmates also stated that Lai was heterosexual and had never expressed romantic interest in Hsia or any other man.
Lai and Hsia reportedly met earlier in 2023 after Lai's elderly and ailing father gifted him some real estate. Hsia’s father, a government official responsible for managing land rights agreements, oversaw the transfer of the property to Lai, with Hsia acting as a witness in the transaction.
In the following weeks, Hsia became a trusted advisor to Lai on legal and financial matters prior to the death of Lai’s father. Lai was reportedly anxious about potential legal battles over his father's inheritance, and Hsia exploited this to manipulate the young man.
When Lai died just two hours after signing the marriage document with Hsia, his family and many others assumed foul play was involved. Ultimately, Lai’s death was deemed a suicide, and Taichung prosecutors declined to bring charges related to his death.
However, investigations into the circumstances of the marriage between Lai and Hsia revealed that Lai had been pressured by Hsia, who was acting as a legal advisor, into signing the marriage documents. Several strangers at the Ministry of Interior offices on May 4 were also persuaded under false pretenses to act as witnesses to the union.
Prosecutors successfully argued that these factors, along with several issues with Hsia’s supplemental documents, meant that the marriage contract was signed under false pretenses, making it invalid. This ruling means that Hsia has no right to Lai's inheritance. The CNA reports that the verdict can be appealed.
