The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has released its reasons for denying registration to a woman who, it found, failed to disclose her previous work at a boiler room.
The OSC Wednesday released its reasons for denying registration to Anna Pyasetsky, who sought to be registered as a dealing rep of a mutual fund dealer; finding that she “lacks the requisite integrity to be registered as a securities professional to deal with the investing public because she knowingly failed to disclose her prior employment with a ‘boiler room’ in her registration application…”
The decision notes that Pyasetsky never faced any enforcement proceeding, but that one of the firms she allegedly worked at for two months in 2008 has since been found to be a boiler room, which was involved with “a fraudulent distribution of securities”. It says she was employed as a ‘qualifier’ to telephone prospective clients to solicit their interest in purchasing limited partnership units. Her employment ended after the OSC executed search warrants at the firm.
According to the decision, Pyasetsky argued that she does not lack the integrity to be registered as a mutual fund rep; that her failure to disclose her job at the boiler room wasn’t on purpose, and that she didn’t mislead OSC staff. She also argued that the denial of her registration is effectively a lifetime ban from her chosen profession and that she is not a risk to the investing public.
However, the commission found that regardless of whether Pyasetsky knowingly failed to disclose her employment with the boiler room, and whether she misled staff during an interview, “when given an opportunity to provide complete disclosure, she failed to do so”, and that this demonstrates a lack of the integrity required for registration. As a result, it denied her application as a mutual fund rep.