The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a three-year prohibition order against Paris Michele for dishonest conduct.
Michele was a representative of UBS’s Singaporean business and, in 2013, forged letters from foreign law firms to make the bank believe that some of its clients were complying with tax regulation in their home country, the MAS said.
As part of his role, he was also tasked with carrying out background checks on people dealing with UBS on behalf of other financial intermediaries.
The regulator found that he falsified emails on those checks.
However, neither Michele nor UBS profited from his actions, and the company did not suffer any financial losses because of it.
Banned and fined
As a result, the MAS has banned Michele from performing any regulated activity and from providing financial advice for three years.
He had already been convicted of forgery and fined S$13,200 ($9,624) in June 2017.
“Financial services professionals play a pivotal role in maintaining Singapore’s status as a responsible and trusted financial centre,” said Siew Yee Loo, assistant managing director (policy, payments & financial crime) at the MAS.
“Mr Michele’s deceitful behaviour, which involved forging of customer due diligence documents, could have seriously compromised UBS’ processes to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.
“His subsequent acts of falsifying other documents demonstrate a clear pattern of dishonesty. Such misconduct must be dealt with firmly to preserve the integrity of our markets.”
International Adviser, FSA‘s sister publication, reached out to UBS, but the firm declined to comment on the matter.
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