A hearing panel of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) has banned and fined a former advisor $75,000 for failing to cooperate with an investigation, the regulator said in a release on Thursday.
Lee Scott McIvor, a former advisor with Sun Life Financial Investment Services, conducted business in the region of Kelowna, B.C., when he allegedly borrowed money from three clients, totalling $530,000, a notice of hearing said.
Starting in July 2018, McIvor failed to co-operate with the MFDA’s investigation into his conduct, the notice said. At the time, McIvor was no longer an MFDA registrant, and hadn’t been one since March 2017.
In addition to the ban and fine, McIvor must pay costs of $10,000.
In a separate hearing in March 2019, McIvor was fined $30,000 and ordered to pay costs of $7,500 for allegations of signature falsification and the use of 92 pre-signed forms for 35 clients. The period of the allegations spanned March 2007 to March 2016. For some of this period, McIvor conducted business in a Sun Life branch in Thompson, Man.
Evidence was supportive of the allegations, said the reasons for decision, dated May 6, 2020.
In the decision, the MFDA described the seriousness of using pre-signed forms.
Such misconduct “adversely affects the integrity and reliability of account documents, leads to the destruction of the audit trail, has a negative impact on [dealer] complaint handling, and has the potential for misuse in the form of unauthorized trading, fraud and misappropriation,” the MFDA said.