Months after a 53-year-old woman died, a family feud has erupted between her husband and brother over donations made for her funeral, resulting in a police report being lodged about a Facebook post.
Joseph Lau, a 52-year-old project manager, was accused online by his brother-in-law Andy Cho, 60, of pocketing the late Angeline Lau’s funeral donations.
Mr Lau told Shin Min Daily News that his sister Angeline died of lung cancer on March 8. She left a will stating that her estate – amounting to over $100,000 – would go to her 15-year-old son.
She named Mr Lau as the executor, which requires him to safeguard the assets and return them to the boy when he turned 21.
Mr Lau believes Mr Cho was unhappy with his late sister’s will. “He never openly objected, but in the months after my sister passed away, he repeatedly approached me to ‘talk about money’.”
Allegations made in a Facebook post
Mr Cho accused Mr Lau and his family of pocketing funeral donations in a Facebook post on Nov 6. He wrote that his father-in-law had promised to give him the remaining funeral donations – after deducting funeral expenses – but later went back on his word.
The allegations eventually reached Mr Lau’s 80-year-old father, leaving the elderly man distressed and prompting him to lodge a police report.
Man’s family denies pocketing funeral’s ‘profit’
Mr Lau said that while their father had informally mentioned the remaining donations would go to Mr Cho, all the money collected was used for the funeral. “We even had to top up out of our own pockets. Yet he insulted us online, accusing us of taking the money.”
