OCBC assistant V-P jailed for illegally accessing bank balances of politicians, influencers and friends

SINGAPORE - Just one month into his new job, an assistant vice-president at OCBC Bank began abusing the access his job gave him and started looking through the account balances and other details of bank customers, including Singaporean politicians, influencers, his colleagues, friends and family members.

Au Jia Hao, who also goes by Ou Jiahao, 39, was jailed for 10 weeks on Jan 3, after he pleaded guilty to one charge of unauthorised access to computer material.

Au illegally accessed the banking details of 369 OCBC customers over eight months, from Nov 8, 2022, to July 31, 2023.

The court heard he was employed as an assistant vice-president of OCBC's Global Commercial Banking division on Oct 12, 2022, and was given access to OCBC's banking system as part of his job scope.

But he soon began to abuse his access by pulling up the names, NRIC numbers, dates of birth, addresses, contact numbers, account balances, and education and employment histories of profiles he had no business looking at.

He did not disclose the information to any third party, and claimed to have illegally accessed the information out of curiosity and stress from work.

The identities of the politicians, influencers and other people affected were not revealed in court.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng said Au had tendered his resignation some time in July 2023, but had continued his offending behaviour until the end of that month.

Au was found out only on Aug 16, 2023, after OCBC's risk and prevention department flagged that he had accessed the information of a senior OCBC employee.

He was confronted by his superior, who later made a police report against him.

Au was dismissed on Sept 7, 2023.

His lawyer, Kalidass Murugaiyan, told the court his client is a father of two young children and that he suffered from depression and other mental health issues, and was remorseful.

In sentencing, District Judge Wong Peck said Au had abused his position as a bank employee and stopped only after there were internal checks by the bank.

For unauthorised access to computer material, Au could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.