AMP manager Ho Wong stole $6 million to feed gambling addiction
A gambling addict stole more than $6 million from superannuation giant AMP in a bid to chase his spiralling losses. And no one seemed to be the wiser until it came to an end in the most extraordinary way.
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A gambling addict who stole more than $6 million from superannuation giant AMP to chase his spiralling losses was only caught after he went to police and confessed.
AMP team manager and father-of-one Ho Ming Wong even provided Excel spreadsheets to police detailing his crimes as he just wanted his gambling to stop.
The Endeavour Hills man, 35, was jailed for six years in the County Court on Thursday but after leading police right to his offending he will be eligible for parole in just two years.
Judge Elizabeth Gaynor said without his “exceptional co-operation” he would have been jailed for seven years with a minimum of five.
Wong, a Melbourne University Bachelor of Commerce graduate with a year 12 ATAR of 96.9, pleaded guilty to 28 charges of theft totalling more than $6.391 million, most of which went to his Sportsbet account and Crown Casino.
The court heard Wong was a team manager in the wealth management section of AMP dealing in client investment in shares and superannuation from 2014 until his dismissal in mid-2019.
On July 18 last year Wong went to the Melbourne West police station stating that he wished to confess to stealing $5 million from AMP.
The court heard he admitted to withdrawing money from a customer’s account and paying it into his own bank account in 2014.
He claimed he would repay it but his gambling addiction took over and he kept going and continued to withdraw money from other customer accounts.
The court heard as Wong’s gambling escalated he chased his losses and the amount he withdrew from customer accounts towards the end of his offending “vastly exceeded that at the start”, with more than $5 million taken in 2018-19 alone.
Wong’s losses escalated to the point where he was contacted by Sportsbet who offered the services of a counsellor and when he declined they closed his account.
Analysis by AMP investigators showed Wong repaid $1.078 million in 2015 and 2019 from his Commonwealth Bank and Sportsbet accounts to the customer accounts he had stolen from.
The court heard all account holders had since been reimbursed by AMP.
Judge Gaynor said it was a very unique case.
“You have essentially provided all the information in relation to the case against you which involved not only a confession but the provision of documentation outlining your thefts,” she told the court.
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“What you told police was simply verified by investigators.”
She said Wong’s specialised knowledge and lack of internal mechanisms must have made it seem like he had an “unending access to moneys with which to gamble”.
She said eventually Wong became someone who “wanted to be found out so that the gambling could stop”.