One former broker at the Montreal branch of National Bank Financial Inc. was fined and suspended MOnday by the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA while his business partner was permanently banned.

On Nov. 2, 2007, an IDA hearing panel accepted a settlement agreement in which Pelletier admitted to: advising and executing options orders when neither he nor his partner Simon Sénécal, were registered to advise/trade in options; recommending to clients that they open options accounts when they were unsuitable for them; failing to ensure that options trading for his clients was referred to an options licensed registered representative as required by his employer; recommending unsuitable options trades for his clients; and creating and providing monthly statements to a client containing incomplete and erroneous information about the value of his account.

This misconduct took place in 2000 and 2001 and was discovered by the IDA in September 2003 from a ComSet report.

In a hearing that took place five days later, Pelletier’s partner, Sénécal, was also punished for allowing his partner to take such actions.

On top of being fined $45,000, Sénécal has been suspended in any capacity for four months, is prohibited from being registered to sell options for five years and is required to pay $5,000 in costs. In addition he must rewrite and pass the conduct exam within six months and must be under strict supervision for 18 months upon re-approval with a firm.

The hearing panel noted that there were significant client losses because of the options trading. The clients have since been compensated for their losses.