********************************************************
Police have arrested 14 persons aged between 19 to 60 suspected to be connected with a syndicated insurance fraud case during an operation codenamed ˇ§Sandrunnerˇ¨ mounted by the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) today (November 30).
Following extensive investigations by CCB officers into a complaint lodged by a local insurance company early this year that five of its insurance agents were suspected of conspiring with other people to apply for a large number of high commission rate insurance policies in order to meet sales quota and obtain lucrative performance bonuses and various remuneration packages.
Follow-up enquiries identified the five insurance agents who were believed to be members of a syndicate which used clientsˇ¦ information without their knowledge/consent or obtained othersˇ¦ personal data via middlemen to apply for insurance policies. They have submitted to their insurance company about 300 insurance policies in the past 12 months involving premiums of about $4.2 million as well as commissions and bonuses totaling about $7.8 million.
During the course of investigations, CCB officers also discovered that seven insurance agents, including the above five syndicate members, had submitted false documents of work, education qualification and income in their job application to the insurance company. Two of them were also suspected of abetting others to give false statements during Police investigation with policyholders.
CCB officers today mounted the operation and arrested 10 men and four women, aged between 19 and 60, after raiding 20 residential and commercial premises across the territory. The arrested persons, including the four syndicate members, two other insurance agents, two middlemen and six insurance policyholders, were arrested for offences of conspiracy to defraud, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and perverting the course of justice.
All arrested persons are still being detained for further enquiries. The operation is ongoing.
Add Police Report No. 8
Ends/Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Issued at HKT 20:59
NNNN