Conspiracy with Intermediaries to Submit False Information on Account Opening Applications
A bank requires customers, who wish to open a corporate bank account, to attend its branches in person for due diligence purpose. As some of its customers consider inconvenient to come to Hong Kong or the branches in person, the operator of an intermediary company, which assists its customers to open bank accounts in Hong Kong, offers advantages to a bank manager for his assistance in opening accounts for the customers who cannot visit the branches personally.
As its general practices, the bank relies on its bank managers to witness the attendance of customers and check the originals of the customers’ supporting documents and sign to certify true copies of the documents. Knowing the bank’s practices, the bank manager falsely indicates on the application forms that those customers have visited the branch in person for the account opening process, and signs to certify copies of the customers’ identity documents without checking the originals. The bank manager then submits the application forms together with the certified true copies of documents in support of the applications.
Offences Committed
The manager, an employee (i.e. agent) of the Bank (i.e. principal), submits false supporting documents so as to circumvent the controls on customer due diligence requirements. The manager may contravene Section 9(3) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (Cap. 201) (POBO) as he used false Information in respect of which his principal was interested and with an intent to deceive his principal. The manager of Bank B and operator of the intermediary company may also respectively contravene Sections 9(1) and 9(2) of POBO.
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