Integrity Focus

In the course of a corruption investigation by the ICAC, it was revealed that a financial intermediary had allegedly conspired with two mortgage loan applicants to deceive a financial services company into granting the duo loans totalling about $5.2 million by making false representations about their monthly salaries. Following the prosecution of the two mortgage loan applicants, the financial intermediary was charged by the Commission yesterday (March 14).

Ting Chun-kwan, 41, senior account manager of Genuine Mortgage Referral Limited (GMRL), faces two counts of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law. The defendant was released on ICAC bail, pending his appearance in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow (March 16) for plea.

At the material time, GMRL was an appointed intermediary of OCBC Wing Hang Credit Limited (Wing Hang Credit) for mortgage loan referral. Between June and December 2018, two customers engaged GMRL for arranging mortgage loans for their properties.

It is alleged that the defendant conspired with the two mortgage loan applicants respectively to defraud Wing Hang Credit by falsely representing that their monthly salaries were $85,000 and $150,000, and causing Wing Hang Credit to approve mortgage loans of about $3.5 million and $1.7 million to the duo.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Enquiries revealed that one of the mortgage loan applicants earned $7,000 each month and the other one was unemployed at the material time. The duo were charged in separate cases by the ICAC earlier, while the financial intermediary was charged yesterday upon receipt of further legal advice from the Department of Justice.

Wing Hang Credit has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.