MAS bans ex-Great Eastern agent for cheating clients of S$58,000

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday (Dec 14) issued an eight-year prohibition order against Selvarajulu Subramaniam, a former insurance agent with Great Eastern Life Assurance.

Selvarajulu was convicted on Sep 24 last year for cheating about S$58,000 from longtime friends he had taken on as clients. He pleaded guilty to four cheating charges and was sentenced to jail for one year and five months.

The ban prohibits Selvarajulu from providing any financial advisory services, and from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm.

He is also not allowed to continue business as an insurance intermediary and is barred from taking part in the management of any insurance intermediary.

One of his victims, who had been his friend for 15 years, gave Selvarajulu S$14,000 after hearing that he had lung cancer. This turned out to be a lie.

Another client was deceived into believing that he was required to pay penalty fees to keep his Great Eastern insurance policies active.

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Other victims were scammed into giving Selvarajulu money after he told them of a “refunding plan” to reinstate the cash value of their policies. The “plan” was in fact a policy loan.

“Selvarajulu’s convictions gave MAS reason to believe that he has not performed, and will not perform, the type of financial advisory service for which he was appointed honestly,” said MAS.