SINGAPORE - The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued prohibition orders (POs) against three individuals who worked for HSBC, UOB and NTUC Income, respectively, after their convictions in court for offences involving fraud and dishonesty, it announced on Wednesday (April 10).
Emeline Tang Wei Leng, formerly a senior vice-president with HSBC, was given a 20-year ban for deceiving five individuals, including her own family member, into handing over more than $5 million on the pretext of making fixed deposits into their HSBC accounts on their behalf, and later giving forged documents as proof of these deposits.
She is prohibited from providing any capital markets and financial advisory services; and also partaking in the management, directorship or being a substantial shareholder of any capital market and financial advisory services firm under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) and Financial Advisers Act (FAA).
For using the proceeds of her crime, Tang was sentenced to 10 years and six months' imprisonment after being convicted of cheating and forgery offences under the Penal Code (PC), and offences under the under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (CDSA).
Nguyen Duy Minh, a former UOB personal banker, was banned for 12 years for selling fictitious financial products to customers and forging documents to purchase financial products without their knowledge. Nguyen also misappropriated funds entrusted by a customer instead of depositing it into the account as instructed. This caused eight customers to lose around $500,000.
He is banned from providing financial advisory services, acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm under the FAA. He was also sentenced in June 2018 to three years and nine months' imprisonment for offences involving cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust under the PC, and offences under the CDSA.
Lastly, John Koh Zhan Loong, formerly a financial associate with NTUC Income, was banned for 10 years for misappropriating insurance premiums amounting to around $500,000 from 11 customers.
Similarly, he is banned from providing financial advisory services, acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm under the FAA. He is also prohibited from carrying business, and partaking in the management of any insurance intermediary under the Insurance Act (IA). Koh was also sentenced to four years' imprisonment in June 2018.
Lee Boon Ngiap, MAS assistant managing director (Capital Markets), said: "MAS imposed POs of considerable duration against these individuals as they had abused their position of trust by engaging in criminal conduct at the expense of their customers. Their egregious misconduct caused considerable monetary losses to the victims."
He added that MAS will act firmly and decisively against financial services professionals who undermine consumers' trust and work to keep such unsuitable persons out of the industry.
