The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) announced it has imposed administrative penalties totalling $60,000 on Chris Oppong, a former life insurance and accident and sickness agent.

In the industry just two years before he was terminated by the managing general agency (MGA), Oppong is not currently licensed in the province. Specifically, he is accused of using coercion and undue influence in order to secure insurance business. He fraudulently procured premium payments on insurance policies that clients didn’t apply for and is also accused of reimbursing premiums.

FSRA says the former agent did not request a hearing or contest FSRA’s proposal to impose the penalties.

Licensed from September 2020 until he was terminated in September 2022, Oppong was contracted with ivari through Greatway. While contracted with the companies, Oppong recruited and trained other people to become licensed insurance agents and join his sales team. The regulator says in some cases Oppong charged would-be recruits a fee to attend the training course.

“In numerous instances Oppong took advantage of these recruits in order to generate insurance business for himself,” the regulator’s notice of proposal states. “Oppong told some of these recruits that purchasing an insurance policy was a condition of enrolling in his insurance course. The recruits did not otherwise want to purchase an insurance policy.” 

In some cases, the agent also reimbursed recruits for their first month’s premium payment before the policies were allowed to lapse. In other cases, Oppong signed recruits up for policies without their knowledge or consent, using the personal and financial information provided to enroll in his training courses.

In an interview with FSRA, the agent admitted he “helped” approximately 15 per cent of his clients by directly reimbursing one or two months of premiums. He later provided a spreadsheet identifying 29 policies for 22 policyholders where he admitted to having reimbursed the policyholder for premium payments. Some of the 22 policyholders had previously been recruits.

“Oppong received compensation of approximately $39,600 in respect of the policies issued to these 22 policyholders. Greatway has commenced a civil action to recover these (and other) payments from Oppong, but has not yet recovered any funds,” the notice of proposal states.

In summary, the notice of proposal adds that FSRA’s director is satisfied that Oppong’s actions were intentional and that they had the potential to cause harm. “The director is not aware of any efforts by Oppong to mitigate any loss or take other remedial action,” the notice states.

Broken down, the regulator issued a $10,000 penalty for using coercion and undue influence, $10,000 for fraudulently procuring premium payments and $40,000 for rebating clients.