A former mutual fund representative who admitted to stealing from a client, and blaming it on a cyberattack, has been fined and permanently banned by regulators.
A hearing panel of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) ordered that Juan Carlos Saavedra, a former rep with PFSL Investments Canada Ltd. in Calgary, is banned from the industry, must pay a $100,000 fine and $5,000 in costs. The panel found that he violated the fund dealer rules by misappropriating money from clients and failing to cooperate with an investigation.
According to the panel’s decision, Saavedra admitted to the misconduct in an agreed statement of facts, and didn’t oppose a permanent ban from the industry — the only dispute with regulators was over the monetary sanctions.
The panel reported that Saavedra admitted to misappropriating over $56,000 from a client, between July and October 2021, by forging the client’s signature to process redemptions from the client’s Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA).
It also noted that he set up pre-authorized contributions into the client’s TFSA, which connected his personal bank account information with the client’s TFSA, “to redeem amounts from [the client’s] account directly into [Saavedra’s] account.”
After the client discovered the unauthorized redemptions and complained, Saavedra allegedly told the client that, “the withdrawals were the result of a cyber-attack,” the panel said. “This was false or misleading.”
The client then reported the redemptions to AGF Investments Inc., which, in turn, notified PFSL.
The firm compensated the client for the misappropriated funds, and terminated Saavedra, the decision said.
Additionally, the panel said that Saavedra was also found to have misappropriated $127,693 from at least five clients of PFSL’s insurance affiliate by processing unauthorized client redemptions.
And, it reported that, in 2022, the Alberta Insurance Council fined him $105,000 for the misappropriation from the insurance clients.
Saavedra was also reportedly convicted of “uttering a forged document” in connection with this misconduct. The panel said that, as a result of that conviction, he was ordered to pay $73,515 in restitution by May 2025.
“Without doubt, the actions of the respondent were egregious. Misappropriation being among the most serious types of misconduct, causing client harm and undermining confidence in the industry,” the panel said, adding that this was compounded by the false cyberattack story and failing to cooperate with CIRO’s investigation.
By failing to cooperate, the self-regulatory organization’s staff, “have been unable to determine the full nature and extent of the respondent’s conduct,” the panel said, “including whether the respondent engaged in similar misconduct with additional clients or other individuals, and how the monies which the respondent misappropriated or failed to account for were used.”