Insurance: Hong Kong prosecutes advisers for fraud and corruption

Five former and serving insurance agents have been with bribery and fraud in using bogus insurance policies to defraud two insurance companies of commissions and monthly allowances. Dah Sing and Manulife have aided ICAC in their investigations.

In the first three cases, the defendants, who were charged yesterday (January 10), are Monita Cheng Woon-ho, 55, Lau Kwok-kei, 51, and Cheng Chong, 23, all former insurance agents of Dah Sing Insurance Services Limited (Dah Sing).

They face a total of 32 charges - 17 of offering an advantage to an agent, contrary to Section 9(2)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO); and 15 of agent conspiring to use document with intent to deceive his/her principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of the POBO and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.

All five will appear in Court tomorrow (12 January) when pleas are expected to be taken.

At the material times, the defendants were down-line insurance agents of a senior unit manager of Dah Sing.

Seventeen of the charges allege that Cheng Woon Ho, Lau and Cheng Chong offered more than HKD139,000, HKD127,000 and HKD57,000 respectively to the senior unit manager of Dah Sing as rewards for arranging them to submit insurance policy applications which were not secured by them.

The remaining charges allege the defendants of having conspired with the senior unit manager of Dah Sing to submit 15 false applications insurance policies with intent to deceive commissions and monthly allowances from Dah Sing.

The above alleged offences were said to have taken place between September 2008 and October 2009.

In the remaining two cases, the defendants, who were also charged yesterday, are David Chic, 39, former unit manager of Manulife (International) Limited (Manulife), and Poon Hoi Ying, 29, unit manager of Manulife.

Chic faces one count of fraud, while Poon is charged with one count of fraud and one of conspiracy to defraud.

At the time of the alleged offences which took place between December 2009 and January 2010, Chic and Poon were down-line insurance agents of a district manager of Manulife.

Chic is alleged to have falsely represented that he was the insurance adviser in an investment-linked insurance plan application and, with intent to defraud, induced Manulife to pay him commission of over HKD230,000. It was alleged that the purported applicant had never made such application.

Poon is accused of having falsely represented to Manulife in his wife's application form for an investment-linked insurance policy by inflating her monthly salary. It was alleged that, with intent to defraud, Poon induced Manulife to pay him commission of over HKD69,000.

Poon is also alleged to have conspired with his district manager to defraud Manulife by falsely representing that Poon was one of the insurance advisers handling an investment-linked insurance policy application, thereby inducing Manulife to reward Poon with commission of more than HKD20,000.