The figures worked at HSBC, United Overseas Bank and NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has banned three former financial industry figures from the sector, who worked at HSBC, United Overseas Bank and NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative, for fraud and dishonest conduct. One person has been banned for 20 years.

The trio are Ms Emeline Tang Wei Leng (HSBC), Nguyen Duy Minh (UOB) and Koh Zhan Loong John (NTUC), MAS said in a statement yesterday. 

The prohibition orders were issued against Tang, Nguyen and Koh following their convictions in the State Courts of Singapore for offences involving fraud and dishonesty. The three court cases are not related.

The ban against the three individuals took effect from 5 April 2019, the regulator said. 

Tang had deceived five individuals into handing over more than S$5 million ($3.7 million) to her on the “pretext of placing the monies into fixed deposit accounts with HSBC on their behalf”, MAS said. “Forged documents were given to the victims to convince them that their monies had been deposited with the bank,” it said. In June 2018, she was convicted of cheating and forgery offences. She was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.

Nguyen has been banned for 12 years from providing financial advisory services. “He had sold fictitious financial products to his customers and forged documents to purchase financial products without their knowledge,” the regulator said.

“He also misappropriated monies entrusted to him by a customer, instead of depositing it into the customer’s bank account, as instructed. Mr Nguyen’s actions caused eight customers to lose approximately S$500,000. In June 2018, he was convicted of offences involving cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust. He was sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment.

Koh was banned for 10 years from the sector. He had misappropriated insurance premiums amounting to approximately $500,000, which he had collected from 11 customers. In June 2018, Mr Koh was convicted of one charge of criminal breach of trust under the PC and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.