Overseasidol.com — Taiwanese actor Vic Chou, and his wife, actress Yu Hongyuan, have fallen victim to a massive insurance fraud.
Their trusted insurance agent, Feng Yaohua, swindled them out of NT$34.47 million (approximately US$1.05 million) through a premium payment scam.
Feng has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for multiple counts of fraud.
The fraud began in 2018 when Yu signed a six-year savings insurance policy, listing Vic Zhou as both the policyholder and the insured.
The premium was divided into six payments of about NT$6.84 million each, set to be automatically deducted from Yu’s bank account.
In April and May 2019, Feng convinced Yu not to pay via bank transfer.
Feng claimed the large transaction amounts could trigger tax investigations and suspicions of money laundering.
She persuaded Yu to hand over the payments in cash, promising to submit them directly to the insurance company.
From May 2019 to September 2021, Yu handed over cash for the second, third, and fourth installments.
Feng later lured Yu into prepaying the fifth and sixth installments by offering a discount of NT$3.47 million, leading to a total loss of NT$34.47 million.
Yu only realized she had been scammed in October 2022 after receiving overdue payment notices from the insurance company.
Prosecutors charged Feng with five counts of fraud. During trial, Feng argued she only borrowed four installments and never received the last payment, but failed to provide proof due to missing chat records.
The Taipei District Court convicted Feng on four counts of fraud, sentencing her to two years and eight months in prison. She was also ordered to repay NT$20.63 million to the victims.
The ruling is final, and Feng is currently serving her sentence.
