Lo Yin-wa, a former branch manager of FWD Life Insurance, was named as a mastermind behind the fraud. She pleaded guilty to 18 charges of conspiracy to launder criminal proceeds and two charges involving conspiracy to defraud. Twelve others, aged between 24 and 61, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to launder criminal proceeds, including seven insurance agents on Lo’s team.
The other defendants are former unit manager at insurer Sun Life Hong Kong Kwok Yun-fong and four agents under her.
The case arose from a complaint made to the anti-corruption watchdog. The agency launched an investigation and said it found Lo had recruited defendants in the case, as well as other people, to join Sun Life or FWD between February 2016 and November 2020.
Lo had asked her agents to hand most of the commissions and other payments received from the two insurers to her. Defendants then laundered about HK$47 million in criminal proceeds through 23 bank accounts controlled by Lo.
Lo and her agents at FWD had falsely stated the agents were handling 272 insurance policy applications. Lo and Kwok, alongside his agents, made false claims involving 206 insurance applications to Sun Life Hong Kong.
Both insurers were unaware of the alleged fraud, approving all applications and disbursing more than HK$22 million in commissions, incentives, bonuses and allowances to Lo’s team, as well as over HK$29 million to Kwok’s team.
The insurance policies were mostly high commission rate products, most of which expired after subsequent premium payments were missed.
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