Twists and turns in insurance scam case

A startling twist has emerged in the saga of ex-AIA agent Sally Low, who yesterday retracted her guilty plea to charges of duping an elderly businessman into buying a bogus insurance policy for US$5.06 million (S$6.3 million).

Low, 37, had pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud and cheating in December, but the State Courts yesterday rejected her plea after she disputed parts of the prosecution's statement of facts (SOF).

She also claimed she was a victim of a ploy to cheat the insurer, AIA, instead.

As a result, the prosecution's offer to proceed on four charges of fraud and cheating - with the remaining 15 charges taken into consideration - lapsed.

That offer was made on condition that Low plead guilty to two charges of cheating, one charge of fraudulent use of forged documents and one charge of moving crime proceeds to a bank account in Hong Kong.

The case now appears to be headed to trial, even though Low has claimed she "doesn't have the resources for trial".

The prosecution could proceed on all 19 charges totalling $8.89 million in claims against her. Of the 19 charges - four were for cheating, 11 were for fraudulent use of forged documents and four were under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.

According to the SOF, Low, in 2002, told Indonesian Chinese businessman Ong Han Ling, 73, that he and his wife, Enny Ariandini Pramana, 72, had been selected to apply for a promotional insurance plan called the AIA Thank You policy, even though Low knew that such a product did not exist.

After receiving US$5.06 million, Low, without their knowledge or consent, used the monies to buy four AIA policies for Mr Ong, his wife and grand-daughter, effecting the purchases by submitting 11 forged documents to AIA.

One of the policies was an IGP Plus policy, which was paid with $5 million of the monies, and processed using forged documents that purported to bear Mr Ong's signature, according to the SOF.

As the maturity date of the IGP Plus policy neared, Low, in January 2005, duped Mr Ong into thinking that a computer crash at AIA had caused the policy to be wrongly registered under his name, and credited to him, and that he needed to pay $5.29 million back.

But yesterday, Low disputed this, saying she did not tell him there was a computer crash. She claimed that Ong had given her the $5.29 million for "investment."

She is also disputing monies allegedly received totalling more than $2.3 million and "that there was a loss" of $1.53 million. Low, who was made bankrupt by her previous set of lawyers, is out on extended bail. A pre-trial conference hearing is scheduled for June 25.

Meanwhile, her lawyers Amarick Gill and Emmanuel Lee of Trident Law Corp, yesterday discharged themselves from representing her, saying she had "issues with the statement of facts that she had admitted to, (which) remain unresolved".

She also had not endorsed her mitigation plea nor did she attend scheduled meetings with her lawyers, Mr Gill added. Low said she did not submit her mitigation papers because her dispute with parts of the statement of facts had not been resolved.

She also repeatedly stonewalled requests by District Judge Lee-Khoo Poh Choo for clarification on which parts of the statement of facts are being disputed, with requests for "more time" and that she "didn't come prepared for this".

That earned her a rebuke from the judge, who said: "You were charged in May 2011. Now we are in June 2014. Anything you don't agree to, you have had years to point out. I can't give you another three to four years ... There must be a conclusion to this case."

When asked by the judge if she admitted to committing the offences, or if she was innocent, Low said she was "not retracting the plea".

But she later said: "There is no AIA Thank You Policy. It was all a ploy by the supposed victims to cheat AIA."

This article was first published on June 14, 2014.
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