Retired Toronto lawyer charged with fraud after allegedly keeping client funds

A suspended and retired Toronto lawyer has been charged with fraud and money laundering in the wake of allegations from clients that he kept their money.

CBC Toronto first reported on the allegations against Ping-Teng Tan last summer. 

At the time, two of Tan's clients were waiting for the lawyer to comply with court decisions ordering Tan to pay them more than $1 million they were collectively owed from the sale of a business, in one case, and the sale of a residential property, in the other.

Nine months later those clients still haven't received a cent. 

York Regional Police confirmed the force charged Tan with two counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of possession of property obtained by a crime and money laundering late last month. Police believe there may be more victims.

The charges have not yet been tested in court.

Tan did not respond to a request for comment for this story on his personal email. His law firm email was shut down last year and the phone number is not in service.

Former client Xiaolong Zhang says he was relieved when an officer informed him Tan was charged with fraud in his case. 

"I felt like justice was finally being done," Zhang said.

Zhang and his wife hired Tan at the end of 2023 to handle the sale of their auto parts distribution business in Vaughan, Ont., to fund their retirement. But they never received the $517,000 in proceeds they were owed from the sale — which was paid to a trust account set up by Tan's law firm — not even after a judge ordered Tan to pay them their money, plus the costs of their legal application, last June.

"Now instead of enjoying our retirement, my wife and I are facing serious financial and emotional stress," said Zhang. "Like most other people, we had a kind of natural trust in lawyers. That trust is supposed to be the foundation of our legal system."

While Zhang is grateful to the police, the ongoing fight to recover his retirement money has left him disillusioned with the civil court process and disappointed with a compensation fund for those who've lost money because of a lawyer or paralegal's dishonesty.

"Mr. Tan has no assets under his name we can go after, so now all we can do is wait for compensation from the Law Society of Ontario," said Zhang. "This long and uncertain wait is incredibly painful — it feels like a second wave of emotional trauma."

The Law Society of Ontario's (LSO) compensation fund is funded by fees that lawyers and paralegals pay the professional regulator each year, and it has a $500,000 cap per claim.