Two former branch managers with scholarship plan dealers have been sentenced for their role in privacy breaches in the maternity wards of Ontario hospitals, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) announced on Wednesday.
Polina (Poly) Edry, a former branch manager with Knowledge First Financial Inc., and Subramaniam Sulur, formerly an assistant branch manager with C.S.T. Consultants Inc., were both fined, sentenced to community service and probation after pleading guilty to one count of participating in an improper referral arrangement, according to the OSC’s announcement.
Edry acknowledged in court that she purchased the contact information of new mothers from Shaida Bandali, a former employee with the Rouge Valley Health System, to use as potential sales leads, the OSC’s announcement states: “Edry also admitted that she was willfully blind to the fact that not all of the patients had agreed to have their personal information shared.”
Edry was sentenced to two years of probation, 300 hours of community service and fined $36,000 in the Ontario Court of Justice at Old City Hall in Toronto. The court also imposed a $9,000 victim fine surcharge on Edry. Sulur received two years of probation, 150 hours of community service, a $3,000 fine, and a $750 surcharge. The terms of Edry’s and Sulur’s probation also prohibit them from engaging in any securities-related business until they complete their community service.
Bandali was given the same sentence as Edry — two years probation, 300 hours of community service, a $36,000 fine and a $9,000 victim surcharge — last year.
The scheme to improperly collect possible leads for registered education savings plan sales was uncovered through an investigation by the OSC’s Joint Serious Offences Team, which is an enforcement partnership between the OSC, the RCMP and the OPP.
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