The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has scheduled hearing with the former compliance head of an exempt market dealer to consider settling a series of allegations.
The OSC said Monday that it will hold a hearing on December 9 to consider a proposed settlement with Imtiaz Hashmani, who was chief compliance office and chief financial officer of an EMD known as Limited Market Dealer Inc. He was also CFO of investment fund manager, MineralFields Management Inc., which managed flow-through LP products; and, Pathway Investment Counsel Inc., a portfolio manager. The allegations note he was not the directing mind of any of these companies.
According to the OSC’s allegations, its compliance reviews of the three firms raised “significant concerns”. And, it says that these reviews revealed that “Hashmani breached Ontario securities law and acted contrary to the public interest”.
In particular, the OSC claims that: he made untrue statements and misleading omissions to the commission; engaged in inappropriate personal trading and inadequately supervised personal trading; and, that his supervision of various compliance activities at the firms was inadequate, including registration issues, ensuring sufficient know your client (KYC) information was collected, that suitability obligations were properly discharged, conflicts were properly managed, and that net asset values (NAV) for the funds it managed were computed correctly, among other alleged issues.
The OSC alleges that this amounts to breaching securities law and acting contrary to the public interest. The allegations have not been proven, and the details of any settlement agreement will only be revealed if the deal is approved by the commission.