SINGAPORE: A financial adviser devised a scheme to earn more commissions by registering policies she sold under her subordinates’ names, before asking her subordinates to transfer their commissions and bonuses to her.
She was promoted to branch director but was later demoted to a Tier 1 representative after Manulife conducted an internal investigation.
Goo Tze Ling was sentenced to eight months’ jail on Monday (Mar 30). She pleaded guilty to two counts each of forgery with intent to commit fraud and unauthorised computer access.
Another three charges were taken into consideration.
THE CASE
The court heard that Goo was a licensed financial adviser at Manulife Financial Advisers. She joined as a unit manager in March 2020 and had the designation “assistant vice president”.
She supervised a team of about five people, which grew larger over time.
Goo and her team sold investment-linked policies to their clients. Several electronic documents had to be signed by the client and the respective financial adviser or sales representative in order to complete the sale of such a policy.
The documents are completed and signed electronically via Manulife’s computer system called “Manutouch”. Each Manulife representative has an account with Manutouch, which they access with unique usernames, passwords and two-factor authentication via a One-Time Password.
The unit manager has to check and verify the completed and signed policy documents before submitting them to Manulife for processing and payment.
Manulife paid certain sales commissions and performance bonuses to its representatives if they fulfilled certain criteria. For example, if the policy is renewed for another year, a further commission is paid to the representative.
Unit managers usually earn an overriding fee which is 21 per cent of the sales commission earned by the representative in their team.
