The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) announced July 9 that it has accepted a settlement agreement with sanctions, between IIROC staff and Vancouver-area registered representative, Kindle Blythe.
According to the settlement, Blythe failed to report four client complaints about forgery to her firm’s compliance department, and further mislead IIROC enforcement staff during an investigative interview. The sanctions follow earlier sanctions – a fine of $35,000 plus costs of $5,000 – levied by the Mutual Fund Dealer’s Association (MFDA) regarding earlier acts which occurred while she was employed with an MFDA member firm.
Formerly of Harbourfront Wealth Management Inc. and Investors Group Financial Services, Blythe predominantly assisted another dealing representative, Mohammad Movassaghi, initially registered with the MFDA, to service the clients assigned to him. Both Blythe and Movassaghi moved to Harbourfront from Investors Group in July 2016. By September 2016, Harbourfront terminated Movassaghi for forging client documents, and made Blythe the broker of record for all of his clients.
Despite Harbourfront policies and procedures, and IIROC rules about reporting complaints, Blythe fielded emails from four clients who emailed to complain that the signatures on their account documents were not theirs. Blythe did not report any of the complaints to Harbourfront, later stating that she had been advised by Harbourfront that its compliance department would be contacting all clients as a result of Movassaghi’s confirmed forgeries, and assumed the client’s complaints would be dealt with as part of that process. In a sworn interview about Movassaghi’s conduct, after she’d received complaints from clients, Blythe stated twice that she had no information about any alleged forgeries or client complaints.
In addition to her MFDA sanctions, Blythe is suspended from registering with any IIROC regulated firm for nine months, must successfully rewrite the Conduct and Practices Handbook course, pay a fine of $10,000, costs of $500, and be supervised for six months upon re-registration. “The respondent acknowledges that but for her demonstrated inability to pay more than the agreed upon fine and costs, staff would have sought a fine and costs that were higher,” they write.
