A suspended and retired Toronto lawyer has been accused of fraud and money laundering following the accusations of clients that they kept their money.
CBC Toronto first reported about the accusations against Ping-HENG so last summer.
At that time, two of the clients were waiting for the lawyer to comply with the judicial decisions that ordered so that they were paid more than $ 1 million, the sale of a business, in one case, was collectively, in one case, and the sale of a residential property, in the other.
Nine months later, those clients have not yet received a penny.
The York Regional Police confirmed that the force accused such two fraud positions of more than $ 5,000, two positions of ownership obtained for a crime and money laundering at the end of last month. Police believe there may be more victims.
The charges have not yet been tested in court.
So did not respond to a request for comments for this story in your personal email. The email of its law firm was closed last year and the telephone number is not in service.
The former client Xiaolong Zhang says that he felt relieved when an officer informed him that he was accused of fraud in his case.
“I felt that justice was finally being done,” Zhang said.
A client says that the lawyer now suspended, Ping-Heng Tan, kept his retirement money.
Zhang and his wife hired so at the end of 2023 to handle the sale of their auto parts distribution business in Vaughan, Ontario, to finance their retirement. But they never received the $ 517,000 in the income owed to them, which was paid to a fiduciary account established by the law firm of Tan, not even after a judge ordered so that they paid their money, plus the costs of their legal application, last June.
“Now, instead of enjoying our retirement, my wife and I face a serious financial and emotional stress,” Zhang said. “Like most other people, we had a kind of natural confidence in lawyers. This trust is supposed to be the basis of our legal system.”
I’m still waiting to recover retirement funds
Although Zhang is grateful to the police, the current fight to recover his retirement money has left him disappointed with the civil court and disappointed process with a compensation fund for those who have lost money due to the dishonesty of a lawyer or legal assistant.
“Mr. so has no assets under his name, we can search, so now all we can do is wait for the compensation of the Ontario Law Society,” Zhang said. “This long and uncertain wait is incredibly painful: it feels like a second wave of emotional trauma.”
The Compensation Fund for the Law of Ontario (LSO) is financed by fees that lawyers and legal assistants pay the professional regulator every year, and has a limit of $ 500,000 per claim.
Zhang filed a complaint with the LSO in February 2024. Then, last April, he told the law society that he retired and closed his practice. That same month, the LSO suspended the tan license, then saying that there was a risk of damage to the public.
He so agreed in the suspension but did not admit guilt. You can still dispute accusations of misappropriation of money that I was confident in a disciplinary audience.
The LSO confirmed that a disciplinary hearing has not been scheduled for so, but its license remains suspended.
The compensation fund decision can take 2 years or more
LSO’s lawyer who handled the Zhang compensation fund claim told him in writing last month that he had completed his review and presented his report on his claim last year, but that his report is still under review and, therefore, could not share a schedule for a decision with Zhang.
The message continued to say that the entire claim process often exceeds two years.
“I can’t wait more than two years to get the funds,” Zhang said.
In a statement sent by email, LSO spokeswoman Amy Lewis told CBC Toronto that the time of a subsidy decision depends on the deadline in which evidence is obtained and the number of claims received and under review.
The Compensation Fund granted 75 claims that involved lawyers last year, paying a total of approximately $ 2.6 million, according to an end of the year report. The fund also denied 30 claims that involved lawyers and received 69 new claims about lawyers in 2024.
While Zhang expects his claim decision, he is considering selling his home, but he is fighting with the idea of trusting a lawyer with the sale.
“If I meet this type of lawyer again, my life has gone because the house is worth more than double, triple half a million,” Zhang said.
“If someone steals that money, what am I going to do for the rest of my life?”
