A mutual fund salesperson with CIBC Securities Inc. has been permanently prohibited from conducting securities-related business in any capacity and ordered to pay a fine of $80,000 after it was determined she misappropriated almost $5,500 from three clients.
The decision by a hearing panel of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA) of Canada against Krystal Jean Vanlandschoot follows one handed down by an Ontario court last year which accepted her guilty plea that she stole funds from the clients. The court imposed a sentence of two years’ probation.
Vanlandschoot, who had worked at CIBC Securities Inc. in Simcoe, ON, was also ordered to repay the bank for its total loss of just over $11,100. At the time of the court decision, she had paid a total of $5,000 of the restitution order.
The MFDA Hearing Panel then brought down its own decisions.
“The Hearing Panel was satisfied that the misappropriation of client monies is fundamentally dishonest conduct which strikes at the very nature of the advisor-client relationship. Such conduct not only caused harm to the client and Members, but it also undermined the reputation and integrity of the securities industry as a whole,” the panel said in its determination.
The hearing panel also said Vanlandschoot failed to co-operate with the MFDA investigation, which it deemed conduct “so outrageously inconsistent with the standard of conduct applicable to an Approved Person that significant penalties against the Respondent are warranted in order to prevent similar misconduct from occurring again in the future. Further, in failing to cooperate, the Respondent has confirmed that she is ungovernable.”
