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Monetary Authority of Singapore, UBS
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has banned former UBS representative Paris Michele for three years over dishonest conduct. 

Michele worked in the Swiss bank’s Singapore branch. He had forged documents and falsified company emails during his employment with UBS, the regulator said in a statement earlier this week. 

Michele is prohibited from performing any regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) and providing any financial advisory service under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA). He is also prohibited from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital market and financial advisory services firm under the SFA and FAA.

His responsibilities at UBS included conducting due diligence on UBS’ customers. In 2013, he forged letters from foreign law firms to deceive UBS into believing that certain UBS clients were tax compliant in their home countries. Michele did not profit from the misconduct, and UBS did not suffer monetary losses as a result of Michele’s forgery. For this misconduct, Michele was convicted of forgery charges under section 465 of the Penal Code (Cap. 224) and fined $13,200 on 14 June 2017.

“Financial services professionals play a pivotal role in maintaining Singapore’s status as a responsible and trusted financial centre. Mr Michele's deceitful behaviour, which involved forging of customer due diligence documents, could have seriously compromised UBS's 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,” Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments & Financial Crime), MAS, said.