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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Ex-Citibank exec fined $173,000 </TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Jan-22 7:50 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 21) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>5728.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Ex-Citibank exec fined $173,000
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Among the charges are computer misuse, disclosing client data, destroying evidence </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
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Low pleaded guilty to 22 charges under the Computer Misuse Act and 242 other charges were taken into consideration. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
A FORMER vice-president of Citibank has been fined $173,000 in what is believed to be the first case of computer misuse involving a bank.
Pleading guilty yesterday to 22 charges under the Computer Misuse Act (CMA), Low Siok Liang, 34, had 242 other charges taken into consideration.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story -->About the case
SEVEN former Citibank employees were charged in January last year with a total of 1,223 charges stemming largely for stealing clients' information before joining rival banks.
Each person charged had between three and 264 charges against them.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Low was also charged with one count under the Penal Code for destroying evidence and one count under the Banking Act for disclosing customer information.
Twenty of the charges the prosecution proceeded on yesterday were for getting her assistant, Valarie Lim Ming Huey, 30, to extract customer data from Citibank's computer database while she was still working there. The offences took place between February and April 2006.
After she quit, Low also got her former colleague Wendy Quek Lien Lien, 31, to take information from the database on a customer's Citibusiness account in April 2006.
The cases of Lim, Quek and four others are pending.
Low was one of Citibank's best relationship managers, rapidly rising through the ranks until she moved to competitor UBS in April 2006.
She and six others were accused of accessing Citibank's computers without authority and sending the data to their personal e-mail addresses; some printed out the information.
Citibank lodged police reports against several of its former relationship managers for taking confidential information from its computer database in 2006.
Low, better known as Carel, also admitted to having conspired with Lim to destroy documents which were to be delivered to Citibank after it served writs of summons on several ex-employees for breach of contract.
In imposing a fine of $8,000 on each of 21 CMA charges, District Judge Thian Yee Sze noted that there was no actual financial harm caused to the bank or its customers.
Low could have been fined $100,000 or jailed for up to 20 years or both on each computer misuse charge. She was fined another $5,000 for destroying bank documents. This charge carries a jail term of up to two years and a fine.
In fact, the judge said, as pointed out by Deputy Public Prosecutor James Lee, Citibank appeared to be the only 'victim'.
Low, the court heard, had already paid $180,000 to the bank to settle the civil claim.
In mitigation, Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng said the information involved was of a less sensitive nature, and publicly available to everyone at the bank. 'It was the misuse of the computer in downloading that information that brought her within the ambit of the CMA,' he said.
Low was praised in several testimonials, including one from a former Citibank branch banking director. Mr Tan said his now unemployed client had learnt a very painful lesson and said there was no possibility she would repeat her crime
[email protected]
</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Among the charges are computer misuse, disclosing client data, destroying evidence </TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Low pleaded guilty to 22 charges under the Computer Misuse Act and 242 other charges were taken into consideration. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
A FORMER vice-president of Citibank has been fined $173,000 in what is believed to be the first case of computer misuse involving a bank.
Pleading guilty yesterday to 22 charges under the Computer Misuse Act (CMA), Low Siok Liang, 34, had 242 other charges taken into consideration.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story -->About the case
SEVEN former Citibank employees were charged in January last year with a total of 1,223 charges stemming largely for stealing clients' information before joining rival banks.
Each person charged had between three and 264 charges against them.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Low was also charged with one count under the Penal Code for destroying evidence and one count under the Banking Act for disclosing customer information.
Twenty of the charges the prosecution proceeded on yesterday were for getting her assistant, Valarie Lim Ming Huey, 30, to extract customer data from Citibank's computer database while she was still working there. The offences took place between February and April 2006.
After she quit, Low also got her former colleague Wendy Quek Lien Lien, 31, to take information from the database on a customer's Citibusiness account in April 2006.
The cases of Lim, Quek and four others are pending.
Low was one of Citibank's best relationship managers, rapidly rising through the ranks until she moved to competitor UBS in April 2006.
She and six others were accused of accessing Citibank's computers without authority and sending the data to their personal e-mail addresses; some printed out the information.
Citibank lodged police reports against several of its former relationship managers for taking confidential information from its computer database in 2006.
Low, better known as Carel, also admitted to having conspired with Lim to destroy documents which were to be delivered to Citibank after it served writs of summons on several ex-employees for breach of contract.
In imposing a fine of $8,000 on each of 21 CMA charges, District Judge Thian Yee Sze noted that there was no actual financial harm caused to the bank or its customers.
Low could have been fined $100,000 or jailed for up to 20 years or both on each computer misuse charge. She was fined another $5,000 for destroying bank documents. This charge carries a jail term of up to two years and a fine.
In fact, the judge said, as pointed out by Deputy Public Prosecutor James Lee, Citibank appeared to be the only 'victim'.
Low, the court heard, had already paid $180,000 to the bank to settle the civil claim.
In mitigation, Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng said the information involved was of a less sensitive nature, and publicly available to everyone at the bank. 'It was the misuse of the computer in downloading that information that brought her within the ambit of the CMA,' he said.
Low was praised in several testimonials, including one from a former Citibank branch banking director. Mr Tan said his now unemployed client had learnt a very painful lesson and said there was no possibility she would repeat her crime
[email protected]
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:o 
