Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) yesterday said it is investigating one of its employees on suspicion of insurance fraud and misappropriating clients’ funds.
The 51-year-old employee, surnamed Chang (張), allegedly asked 300 clients to make single-premium or one-off payments for their multiyear policies and stored the funds in her own postal office account before making payments on their behalf via installments.
Chang, who has been fired since the incident came to light, worked at the Rueifang District (瑞芳) Post Office in New Taipei City.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
She had been employed by Chunghwa Post for 33 years, company spokeswoman Susan Lan (藍淑貞) said.
The company discovered the scheme after being tipped off at the end of last month, Lan said.
Chang is suspected of engaging in the illegal practice since 2009.
A preliminary investigation found that 300 postal life insurance subscribers and 800 insurance contracts were involved, with the premiums collected totaling between NT$200 million and NT$300 million (US$6.6 million and US$9.9 million), the company said.
The amount of unearned premiums involved — which refers to the unexpired portion of the life insurance — was about NT$400 million, Lan said.
Chang has about NT$31.9 million in her post office bank account, Lan said.
The company’s insurance subscribers are allowed to pay their premiums on a monthly, quarterly, biannual or annual basis, the spokeswoman said, adding that it has never asked insurance subscribers to make a single premium payment.
The way Chang allegedly collected insurance premiums was inappropriate and violated company policy, Lan said.
The company has set up a special task force to investigate Chang and her post office account transactions, Lan said.
It said that Chang is the only employee who has asked clients to make single premium payments.
“We apologize for any misunderstandings and inconvenience, and will dispatch specialists to each of our insurance clients affected by the incident to offer a detailed explanation. We will also cancel the contracts and return the premiums that they have paid,” Lan said.
Chunghwa Post has prepared about NT$100 million in funds to return to these clients, Lan said, adding that they would not suffer any financial losses from the incident.
Chang was considered one of the compay’s top insurance salespersons, with her clients paying a total of between NT$400,000 and NT$500,000 in premiums each month.
It is suspected that Chang offered her clients an interest rate of 4 percent to persuade them to voluntarily make single-premium payments for a six-year life insurance plan, Lan said.
The commission that an insurance salesperson would receive for each case varies between 2 and 5 percent of the premium, depending on the case.
Lan said it took eight years for the case to come to light because Chang’s clients appeared to have kept up with the premium payments.
“Each insurance case would have two copies of an insurance policy — one for the subscriber and one for the company. The copies we saw were fine, but we suspect she changed the terms on the copies of the subscribers, which we would not see,” Lan said.
The company has 2.5 million insurance subscribers and has an insurance fund of about NT$980 billion, Lan said.
It will enhance internal control mechanisms to prevent similar incidents, she said.
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