KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 13): The Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia (FIMM) announced in a statement on Monday that it has reprimanded four consultants for misconduct in unit trust schemes (UTS) and private retirement schemes (PRS).

Two of them were unit trust consultants with Hong Leong Bank Bhd — Farah Liana Mohammad Usolli and Tiew Mong Ling. Farah Liana was accused of misusing customers' information to submit credit card applications and a joint application for ASB Financing-i without their authorisation or knowledge. Tiew was found to have carried out nine unauthorised UTS investment transactions totalling RM136,000 between April 3, 2019 and Feb 19, 2021, without the customer's knowledge. She also forged signatures on the investment forms and misrepresented the customer's investment.

The other two were Noraniza Ab Rahman, who was a UTS consultant at Public Mutual Bhd, and Annie Lau Kho Chee, who was with Kenanga Investors Bhd (KIB).

Noraniza was found to have accepted cash from an investor in June/July 2021 by allowing the investor to transfer RM40,000 into her personal bank account, intended for UTS investments with Public Mutual. She misappropriated the funds and provided a false investment statement dated Nov 15, 2021 to the investor.

Lau was accused of allowing a former UTS consultant at KIB to market UTS to four investors between April 2021 and December 2022, despite being the servicing consultant for these investors during the material time.

All four have now been barred from registration with the FIMM for five years, starting from Nov 15, 2024. According to the FIMM, the misconducts were detected via notification from their former employers.

"These public reprimands are imposed to send a strong message that the FIMM will take action against those who fail to comply with any rules issued by the FIMM," said federation. "This is to deter UTS and/or PRS consultants from committing any misconducts, and to remind them that it is crucial to observe the FIMM's rules when marketing and distributing UTS and/or PRS in Malaysia to protect the interests of the investing public."