The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a six-year prohibition order for former insurance agent Koh Kesheng Stedtson following his convictions for offences involving dishonesty, namely forgery and cheating.

As a result, Koh is prohibited from providing any financial advisory service, or taking part in the management, acting as a director of, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm under Singapore’s Financial Advisers Act. He is also prohibited from acting as or managing an insurance intermediary under the Insurance Act.

According to the MAS, Koh was a representative of Manulife Singapore from September 2013 to February 2015. While with Manulife, Koh made seven customers erroneously believe that the premiums paid for their existing insurance policies from another insurer would be transferred to new policies issued by Manulife. Koh then forged documents to deceive the customers that the cash value of their existing insurance policies had been successfully transferred to their new Manulife policies.

However, the customers’ previous policies lapsed because they stopped paying premiums to the previous insurer, resulting in the loss of the policies and the premiums becoming irrecoverable.

On Feb. 15, Koh pleaded guilty and was convicted by the State Courts of four counts of cheating and two counts of forgery. He was sentenced to 24 weeks’ imprisonment.