The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has denied the bid of a couple of former mutual fund reps to get their registrations reinstated.
According to a decision released Thursday, Sanjiv Sawh and Vlad Trkulja applied to OSC for a review of an earlier decision by a director of the commission to deny them registration. In that initial decision, the director ruled that neither of them “demonstrated the required integrity or proficiency of securities professionals”, and found that reinstating their registrations was objectionable.
That ruling came in the wake of an enforcement case brought by the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA), Toronto-based Investment House of Canada (IHOC). Sawh and Trkulja co-founded IHOC; Sawh served as chief compliance officer, executive vice president and managing director, and Trkulja was president and CEO.
In 2010, IHOC and the two men agreed to a settlement with the MFDA in which they admitted to 11 contraventions of MFDA rules, which required IHOC to resign its membership in the MFDA, and resulted in their individual registrations being suspended.
On Thursday, the OSC released its decision regarding a hearing it held last year to consider their bid for reinstatement, which endorses the earlier decision denying them registration.
In its decision, the OSC said that Sawh and Trkulja’s “failure to appropriately disclose or otherwise manage the conflicts or potential conflicts of interest” fell short of the standards of ethical conduct required. “Their continued denial at the hearing and review of the need to disclose or otherwise manage such conflicts or potential conflicts further prevents us from concluding that they will address conflicts of interest in accordance with the integrity requirements of registration in the future,” it said.
“In summary, we find that the applicants lack the requisite proficiency and integrity to be registered as dealing representatives of an [mutual fund dealer] and that the reinstatement of their registrations is otherwise objectionable,” the OSC concluded.