A former mutual fund rep has been fined and banned for violating securities rules, by taking money from several clients to invest in his outside business ventures.
A hearing panel of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization ordered that Andrew Kazina, formerly with Investors Group Inc. in Winnipeg, be permanently banned from the industry and fined $342,500. It found that he violated several of the self-regulatory organization’s rules. He was also ordered to pay $30,000 in costs.
Back in November 2023, a hearing panel found that Kazina engaged in undisclosed outside business activity by operating an unregistered tax and financial planning business, and a marketing, franchising and consulting business, alongside his work as a fund rep.
It also found that he engaged in unapproved securities-related business — and personal financial dealings with clients — by raising over $250,000 from at least eight clients and two other investors in his outside businesses, and promising returns on those investments.
Those arrangements amounted to selling securities as they meet the definition of investment contracts, the panel said, “… by raising monies from clients and non-clients to invest in his personal business, [Kazina] was clearly engaging in the sale of a security.”
It also found that he accepted these investments from both clients and non-clients, “which he then commingled with his own personal savings.”
These dealings amounted to undisclosed conflicts of interest, the panel said.
It also found that he provided false or misleading information to his dealer in annual compliance questionnaires.