MAS bans two individuals for fraud and dishonest conduct

Singapore, 30 October 2020… The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued prohibition orders (POs) against two former bank employees for fraud and dishonest conduct. The individuals are:

Name	Duration of Prohibition Orders
Mr Lu Chor Sheng, former Treasury Advisor of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC)	17 years
Mr Tan Swee Thiam Timothy, former Relationship Manager of United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB)	9 years

2 The POs were issued against the two individuals following their convictions in the State Courts of Singapore. The two court cases were not related. The orders took effect from 29 October 2020.

17-year POs against Mr Lu Chor Sheng

3 Mr Lu is prohibited for a period of 17 years from performing any regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) and from providing any financial advisory service under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA). He is also prohibited from taking part in the management, acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital market services firm under the SFA and any financial advisory firm under the FAA.

4 Between January 2011 and June 2013, Mr Lu used the OCBC accounts of a friend to place unauthorised forward foreign exchange (FX) trades with off-market rates in OCBC's system, so that he could buy lower and sell higher than the prevailing market rates. To realise profits, Mr Lu placed additional unauthorised trades in his customers' accounts as counterparties to the trades placed in his friend's accounts. Mr Lu told his customers that these were erroneous trades that would be reversed at no loss to them. Mr Lu also instigated his friend to impersonate his customers to place unauthorised forward FX orders with OCBC, in order to close off unauthorised FX trades that Mr Lu had placed in those customers' accounts.

5 When the unauthorised trades were discovered by OCBC, the bank closed out the outstanding contracts in Mr Lu's customer accounts and suffered a total loss of $3.09 million. Mr Lu made a profit of about $1.09 million from his misconduct and used the monies to buy foreign currencies as well as to repay debts.

6 Mr Lu was convicted of abetment of cheating under the Penal Code (PC), unauthorised modification of the contents of OCBC's system under the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) and offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act. Mr Lu was sentenced to 100 months' imprisonment.

9-year POs against Mr Tan Swee Thiam Timothy

7 Mr Tan is prohibited for a period of nine years from performing any regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) and from providing any financial advisory service under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA). He is also prohibited from taking part in the management, acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital market services firm under the SFA and any financial advisory firm under the FAA.

8 Mr Tan's friend, a customer of UOB, had entrusted her UOB bank accounts, internet banking security token and UOB ATM card to him. Between March 2015 and January 2016, Mr Tan made unauthorised internet bank transfers amounting to around $263,500 from this customer's UOB account to his personal bank account, in order to pay for his living expenses.

9 Mr Tan was convicted of criminal breach of trust under the PC and offences under the CMA. He was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment.

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