THREE former insurance agents from Prudential Assurance Company : K6S 0% were on Friday (May 24) issued prohibition orders by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for obstructing the course of justice, falsifying records and providing false information to MAS.
These orders, issued under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA), bar them from providing financial advisory service, and from taking part in the management of any financial advisory firm, acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder of such firms.
Eunice Yuen Pui Leng received a prohibition order lasting five years, while Grace Tan Zhen Zhi was issued an order for three years. They were convicted of offences under the FAA in 2023.
The pair have also been prohibited from carrying on business as, and from taking part in the management of, any insurance intermediary under the Insurance Act (IA).
The third individual, Benny Lim Hee Loon, was handed a prohibition order for a year. He was also given a stern warning for providing false information to MAS, in lieu of prosecution. Formerly an agent with Prudential, he is now an agent with Manulife Financial Advisors.
The orders took effect on Friday.
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The offences
In September 2018, Yuen, then an insurance agent with Prudential, was called up to attend an interview with MAS for an ongoing investigation.
She was required to produce documentary evidence of coaching conducted by her for representatives within her agency group, so that MAS could ascertain who was supervising these representatives. MAS also wanted to ascertain whether supervisors were being remunerated according to the authorities’ requirements.
However, before the interview, Yuen told Tan to make up false entries on purported coaching forms. Yuen then submitted the false forms to MAS; she also intentionally deleted messages from her mobile phone ahead of the interview with MAS, knowing that the information would likely be required by the regulator for its investigation.
In the course of MAS’ investigation into Yuen and Tan in October 2018, Lim attended an interview with MAS, where he made several false statements.
He said that he had signed off on coaching forms on the dates when Yuen purportedly coached him as his supervisor. However, he subsequently admitted that he had signed the coaching forms only a day after she was notified by MAS to go for the interview.
Yuen was fined S$20,000 last year for offences under the FAA. These included wilfully falsifying entries in Prudential’s documents, and for turning in these falsified documents to MAS. Separate charges under the FAA, and a charge for intentional obstruction of justice under the Penal Code – for deleting the messages before her interview with MAS – were taken into consideration in the sentencing.
Similarly, Tan was fined S$5,000 upon her conviction for making false entries in documents belonging to Prudential.
MAS said that Yuen and Tan’s convictions for offences involving dishonesty, and Lim’s conduct during the course of the MAS interview, gave the authority reason to believe that they had not and would not carry out regulated activities under the FAA and IA honestly.
“MAS takes such misconduct seriously and will take firm action against financial-services professionals who intentionally hinder MAS’ investigations by providing false information,” said the regulator.
