A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) hearing panel has partially upheld the appeal of an Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) hearing panel decision against Vancouver advisor Alberto Tassone.
In 2017, the IIROC hearing panel found that Tassone violated the self-regulatory organization’s rules by misleading IIROC investigators, but it dismissed the other allegations against him — namely that he engaged in unauthorized outside business activities, and accepted compensation from someone other than his dealer.
As a result, the IIROC panel ordered Tassone be suspended for six months, and pay a $40,000 penalty and $40,000 in costs.
Tassone and IIROC each appealed the IIROC panel’s decision to the BCSC, which issued its ruling earlier this month.
While the BCSC panel dismissed Tassone’s appeal, it upheld one aspect of the appeal by IIROC by finding that Tassone did conduct outside business activity.
The BCSC panel ordered that the case be returned to the IIROC hearing panel to determine whether that outside business activity was authorized by Tassone’s dealer, or not.
However, the BCSC panel declined IIROC’s appeal to overturn the dismissal of the allegation Tassone accepted compensation from someone other than his dealer.
The BCSC panel also declined to interfere with the six-month suspension ordered by the IIROC hearing panel for providing misleading information to IIROC investigators.
“Tassone’s misconduct was serious, and as the IIROC panel found, intentional. However, the totality of the penalties imposed by the IIROC panel, including the suspension, are also serious and significant. In particular, the financial penalties imposed upon Tassone were significant. We cannot conclude that those sanctions are unreasonable in all of the circumstances of this ” the BCSC panel states in its ruling.