More than seven years in prison for man who defrauded insurance company of about $1.9 million

SINGAPORE – A claims assessor from Prudential Assurance Co Singapore defrauded the company of about $1.9 million in total by submitting multiple false claims over more than two years.

In what was described by the court as “a blatant case of insurance fraud,” Charn Sze Choong, 38, managed to bypass the company’s internal controls as administrative staff acted on his instructions without necessary verifications.

On October 22, he was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and a $1,000 fine. He had pleaded guilty to nine charges, including five counts of wire fraud involving more than $1.3 million.

A total of seventeen other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing, including those related to the remaining amount of money.

Charn, a claims adjuster for the insurance company from 2017 to 2021, did not issue a refund.

Charn’s accomplice, Benjamin Song Junde, 40, was sentenced on October 3 to one year, six months and two weeks in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Louis Ngia said Charn’s responsibilities as a claims assessor include processing claims from Prudential’s clients.

Between December 2018 and February 2021, he used his knowledge of the company’s internal controls and submitted false claims under insurance policies that were not his.

As part of the ruse, Charn instructed Prudential’s administrative staff to add beneficiary bank accounts to insurance policies, claiming that such accounts belonged to policyholders.

In reality, the bank accounts belonged to him and his acquaintances.

The prosecutor said: “Such requests would generally have to be supported by… documents such as bank statements.

“Upon receipt of such requests, Prudential administrative staff was required to review supporting documents to ensure that the beneficiary bank accounts belonged to (parties such as policyholders) before approving the addition of the beneficiary bank accounts.”

But the unsuspecting administrative staff followed Charn’s instructions without verifying supporting documentation.

After the beneficiaries’ accounts were added, Charn entered the false claims into Prudential’s Life Asia claims management system before reviewing and approving the claims to receive the ill-gotten gains.

The DPP told the court: “The suspect diverted some of the money to the bank accounts of his creditors to pay off his own gambling debts to them.”