A hearing panel of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada has ordered a Montreal broker trading on non-public information to pay back his profit.

The violation occurred when Patrick Larkin Belland was a registered representative with the Montreal branch of Brockhouse & Cooper, an IIROC-regulated firm.

On February 9, the panel accepted a settlement agreement in which Belland admitted that:

On or about March 9, 2005, “he effected a transaction in securities in his brokerage account based on information received from PC, when he knew, or should have known, that such information constituted or could constitute privileged non-public information and that he could not engage in trading based on such inside information.”

The panel ordered Belland to disgorge his profit of $23,852.73.

IIROC formally initiated the investigation into Belland’s conduct on Aug. 27, 2008.

Belland is still a registered representative with Brockhouse & Cooper.

The settlement agreement and the hearing panel’s decision and reasons are available on IIROC’s website.

IE