The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) will hold a hearing on Wednesday to consider a settlement with Toronto-based Sentry Investments Inc. and its former CEO, Sean Driscoll, which are alleged to have violated sales practices rules by providing advisors with trips to a conference in California and tickets to the Montreal Grand Prix, respectively.
The terms of the settlement will only be revealed if the OSC approves the deal. The allegations the OSC has brought forth, which have not been proven, suggest Sentry violated the sales practices rules when it held a mutual fund conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., in September 2015.
Specifically, the conference allegedly violated several requirements in that the fund management firm selected the reps to attend the conference; paid for their travel and other expenses; and the conference was not primarily educational.
The OSC also alleges that Driscoll gave tickets to the Montreal Grand Prix to an advisor in April 2015 and 2016, which the OSC also says violates the sales practices rule. The firm also stands accused of providing advisors with excessive gifts and failing to have adequate controls to prevent these violations.
Earlier this year, Sentry replaced Driscoll as CEO, appointing its then-president and chief operating officer, Philip Yuzpe, to the top job.
Securities regulators implemented the sales practices rules in the late 1990s to address some of the conflicts of interest that arose with fund companies using incentives, such as sales contests and lavish trips, to generate mutual fund sales.
Read: Sales practices investigation spurs CEO change at Sentry
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