Integrity Focus

A former district manager of an insurer and three downline agents of different tiers were today (August 29) charged by the ICAC for allegedly conspiring together to defraud the insurer of commissions, overriding commissions and bonuses totalling over $750,000 by making false representations that the lowest tier agent had handled various insurance policy applications. The illegal activities were revealed in the course of a corruption investigation.

Hui Ngai-hing, 59, former district manager of FTLife Insurance Company Limited (FTLife); Monica Wong Fung-yee, 64, and Yee Sheung-wai, 38, both former agency managers of FTLife; and Chau Ching-man, 31, former insurance agent of FTLife; jointly face one count of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to the Common Law.

The four defendants were released on ICAC bail to appear at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday (August 31) for mention, pending the prosecution’s application for transferring the case to the District Court.

At the material time, Hui was a district manager of insurer FTLife. Wong, Yee and Chau were her downline agents working in different tiers in descending order. When an insurance product was successfully sold by Chau, she and her upline managers, including Yee, Wong and Hui, would respectively receive commission and overriding commissions. They would also be entitled to bonuses when sales targets were achieved.

It is alleged that between July and September 2020, the four defendants conspired together to defraud FTLife by dishonestly falsely representing that 32 insurance policy applications in which Chau was named as the handling agent were genuinely made by the relevant policyholders, causing FTLife to approve the applications and release wage payments, commissions and bonuses.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Investigation revealed that Chau was not in Hong Kong when the insurance policies were taken out. In addition, most of the policyholders had no knowledge of the insurance policies and they did not take them out. Those insurance policies eventually lapsed due to default payment of premiums.

Had FTLife known that Chau was not the actual handling agent of the 32 applications or the applications contained false information, it would not have approved them and released the commissions, overriding commissions and bonuses totalling over $750,000 to the defendants.

FTLife has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The ICAC will continue to collaborate with the industry in providing integrity training to practitioners of the insurance industry and tips on managing staff integrity for managerial staff. For more information, please visit the Ethics Promotion Website for the Insurance Industry produced by the Hong Kong Business Ethics Development Centre.