On September 1, 2021, in order to strengthen the behavior control of sales personnel and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, The Beijing Supervisory Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has issued the "Notice of the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau on Regulating the Management of Self Insurance and Mutual Insurance Items for Personal Insurance Salesmen" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice of Self Insurance and Mutual Insurance Items") and the "Measures for the Registration of Punishment Information for Salesmen of Insurance Institutions in Beijing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures for the Registration of Punishment Information"). The "Notice on Self Insurance and Mutual Insurance Parts" clarifies the definitions of self insurance and mutual insurance parts, and requires insurance institutions to establish a sound management system for self insurance and mutual insurance parts. Purchasing insurance products is not allowed as a condition for sales personnel to enter the company, become regular employees, or be promoted. Self insurance and mutual insurance parts are not allowed to participate in any form of performance evaluation and business competition. If sales personnel violate regulations and disciplines in the business of self insured and mutual insured parts, they will enter punishment information in strict accordance with the "Punishment Information Registration Method". When recruiting personnel, insurance institutions will be prohibited from hiring if they find that there are regulatory prohibitions or entrustments for the recruited personnel.

 

As early as a year before the issuance of the above-mentioned notice by the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai Pudong Court had successively tried 13 cases of fraudulently obtaining insurance commissions by means of "false insurance, malicious complaints", and the Jing'an District Procuratorate had also successively accepted 15 cases of former insurance company employees who illegally obtained information about the applicant and then went to other places to develop their businesses and intended to encroach on the new employee's allowance. It can be said that chaos such as "surrender of black property" and "agency surrender of black property" has seriously affected the healthy development of the insurance industry. The criminal crimes that may be suspected in the above-mentioned black industry chain mainly include the following aspects.

1、 One of the criminal means of surrendering insurance for illegal property: false insurance, malicious complaints

 

Zhang San joined a newly established insurance company as a salesperson. In order to increase performance and expand customer volume, the insurance company has given sales personnel very high insurance commission rewards, and its first year's commission is even equal to the first year's premium of the policy. Under the temptation of such high commission, Zhang San decided to organize all his relatives and friends to provide information such as name, ID number number, telephone number, etc., so that all of them became either salesmen of Zhang San's sales team or policyholders who bought insurance products, and then paid them to make false insurance. After receiving the commission, they made malicious complaints about the cancellation of insurance, so as to defraud the insurance commission, After receiving the commission, they will also give benefits to these relatives and friends. After many successes, Zhang San's ambition became increasingly ambitious. So they began to borrow money from others, while developing more people to defraud insurance commissions in the same way. The insurance company is also open to all comers. As long as there is a name, ID number number and telephone number, the insurance company will directly accept all the insurance company's sales personnel according to the order. After the premium is collected, the commission will be issued directly according to the incentive policy.

 Later, the insurance company discovered that more and more people were surrendering insurance, and most of them were insurance policies issued by the three teams. When I looked at it in more detail, I found that the proportion of high-value insurance policies rarely purchased by ordinary people in the Zhang San team was very high. Later, during a follow-up visit to an insured customer, the customer actually said that he didn't remember buying this insurance policy, and couldn't even say what type of insurance he bought and the amount. The insurance company discovered that it had been cheated, confiscated the premium, and lost a huge amount of commission.

 

In the above-mentioned case, Zhang San defrauded insurance commissions by means of false insurance coverage and malicious surrender, which constituted a crime of fraud. The party that provides insurance funds to it, the party that knowingly takes out insurance as an insured, and the party that provides bank cards for posting may all constitute accomplices to the crime of fraud.

 

Guidelines for the Law: Article 266 of the Criminal Law [Crime of Fraud]: Fraud of public or private property, with a relatively large amount of [3000 yuan to 10000 yuan], shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, or public surveillance, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; "If the amount is huge [between 30000 yuan and 100000 yuan] or if there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined;"; "If the amount is especially huge [over 500000 yuan] or there are other especially serious circumstances, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or sentenced to confiscation of property.". "If there are other provisions in this Law, those provisions shall prevail.".

 

2、 Criminal means for surrendering insurance and illegal production: illegally obtaining personal information, cheating and prying orders

 

Li Si and Wang Wuyuan are also employees of insurance companies, with extensive relationships and contacts. So the two began to tangle with social idle personnel, intending to conspire to form an insurance black property team. Li Sixian colluded with the senior manager A of an insurance company, who instructed the business manager B and others to provide the account number of the new salesperson in the insurance business team; Hou Wangwu buys transaction information from others about insurance companies' customers, and gives the information to the team members of the insurance industry. Team members began to impersonate insurance company employees to contact these customers, using a "prying order" approach to get customers to purchase new insurance policies. Li Si and Wang Wu also listed the new insurance policy under the account of the new salesperson, in order to defraud the insurance company of additional rewards such as new training allowance and bonus for new employees. The rewards obtained will be shared by all members of the team.

 

(1)The act of providing a new employee's account and misappropriating the new employee's allowance by an insurance company's personnel may constitute a crime of duty misappropriation.

 

In the above case, Li Si and Wang Wu colluded with the internal personnel of the insurance company, such as senior manager A and business manager B, to use the convenience of the insurance company in managing the new salesperson and selling the insurance policy, to hang the new insurance policy under the account of the new salesperson, and jointly take possession of the new employee allowance or bonus obtained by the new salesperson, they may be convicted and punished for the crime of post embezzlement.

 

Law guidance: Article 271 of the Criminal Law [Crime of Occupation by Duty]: Any employee of a company, enterprise, or other unit who, taking advantage of his or her position, illegally takes possession of his or her own property, if the amount is relatively large [between 60000 yuan and 400000 yuan], shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined; If the amount is huge, [1 million yuan to 15 million yuan], he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years, and shall also be fined; "If the amount is particularly large [over 15 million yuan], it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined.".

 

(2)The act of selling or providing insurance information by employees of an insurance company may constitute a crime of infringing upon citizens' personal information.

 

In the above cases, if the internal employees or others of the insurance company sell or provide the insured transaction information to the black property team (which may include the policy number, insurance date, insurance type, premium, name, ID number, home address and telephone number, etc.). "If the above-mentioned personnel are unaware of the subsequent crime of official embezzlement or fraud and have not objectively participated in the subsequent act, but there are circumstances such as selling 500 items or making illegal profits of more than 5000 yuan, or other circumstances that comply with the provisions of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Personal Information of Citizens, it may constitute a crime of infringing personal information of citizens.". However, if the personnel of an insurance company sell or provide personal information of citizens obtained in the course of performing their duties or providing services to others, they shall be punished.

 

Guidance of the Law: Article 253-1 of the Criminal Law [Crime of Infringement on Personal Information of Citizens]: Whoever, in violation of relevant regulations of the State, sells or provides personal information of citizens to others, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall also be fined.

 

3、 Compliance advice from insurance companies

 

Judging from the criminal methods of the above-mentioned insurance mafia gangs, in fact, they mainly exploited the management loopholes of insurance companies. Therefore, in response to the above behavior, the author proposes the following compliance recommendations for insurance companies' reference:

 

(1)Strengthen the authenticity review of employees and eliminate blind expansion

 

Many newly established insurance companies or insurance brokerage companies, in order to expand the number of personnel and increase their performance as soon as possible, often bring in the team directly. Team leaders only need to provide the insurance company with their name, ID number and phone number when developing team members in the follow-up. There is no need to go through the induction process or work attendance, so many insurance companies have never seen the insurance salesperson. For example, in the fraud case mentioned above, the mafia gang took advantage of loopholes in the recruitment and follow-up personnel management of insurance companies to randomly add insurance sales personnel. When inquiring by phone from an insurance company, some even said that they had never worked part-time outside and did not admit joining the insurance company.

 

Therefore, it is recommended that insurance companies strengthen the authenticity review of employees, including requiring employees to provide as complete personal information as possible, requiring them to personally handle the entry procedures, strictly checking the entry data, and recruiting only full-time sales personnel. Part-time employees are no longer allowed to enter the company. In the follow-up personnel management, sales personnel are required to clock in regularly every week, participate in meetings, and continuously conduct compliance training for incoming personnel.

 

(2) Improve the entire process review system from insurance to performance awards to ensure true performance

 

In addition to blindly recruiting, many insurance companies have also relaxed their review of insurance policies, ensuring that everything is fine as long as the premiums are received, and then directly paying commissions in accordance with the incentive policy, which hides a huge hidden danger. In the above-mentioned cases, the insurance company did not realize until it received a large number of complaints and then withdrew its insurance. If it had strengthened the review of key links including insurance, withdrawal, reinsurance, and claim settlement in advance, it might not have been possible for the commission to be defrauded.

 

For example, when applying for insurance, it is required to arrange a special person to make a phone call and record it based on the insurance materials submitted by the sales personnel. If possible, it is best to conduct on-site verification and video confirmation; When granting commission awards, it is not a one-time payment in full, but a comprehensive payment strategy based on the amount, duration, and renewal of the insurance policy. This not only meets the rewards for newcomers, but also adds an additional guarantee to the insurance company's commissions and premiums. In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen the punishment of false insurance and order registration, and immediately impose fines, blacklist, and even investigate the responsibility of managers layer by layer upon discovery.

 

(3)Increase hierarchical management of transaction information to prevent data leakage

 

As can be seen from the criminal means of the insurance syndicate mentioned above, relevant personnel of the company can export and sell transaction information at will, which is the result of inadequate information protection. Therefore, it is recommended that insurance companies increase the protection of transaction information, clarify the use rights of personnel at all levels, and correspond to different access rights for the entry, viewing, and downloading of transaction information. For example, depending on the way data is processed, it requires different levels or multiple levels of approval before proceeding. For resigned personnel, it is necessary to promptly stop their access rights and make every effort to ensure the security of transaction information.

 

 

Judging from the current judgment, Shanghai has taken the lead in conducting legal research and judgment on the criminal methods of insurance syndicates, and its crackdown has taken the lead in the country. At the same time, there are still a large number of cases at the stage of investigation, review and prosecution. However, it is a pity that the vast majority of insurance syndicates are still "at large" at present, not because other places do not consider these crimes, but because insurance companies choose to turn a blind eye to these acts, afraid of publicity, fear of declining performance, agency companies fear that insurance companies will no longer cooperate, and so on. Therefore, the formation of these chaotic phenomena has both external and internal causes. It is recommended that insurance companies carry out self inspection and self correction, pay attention to the collection and preservation of evidence if any of the above situations exist, actively take up legal weapons to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and return the insurance industry to a pure land.