The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has imposed a compliance order against Nataly Belinska and the Happy Futures Centre, after Belinska admitted to submitting invoices to an insurer without having provided services.
Under the order, Belinska, who owns Happy Futures, must immediately cease charging for any work performed if it is reasonable to expect that all or a portion of the charges will be directly or indirectly paid for by an insurer. She must cease holding out as being authorised to perform such work and must not directly or indirectly advertise, solicit or offer any services related to any work that will be directly or indirectly paid for by an insurer. Happy Futures Centre, an agency which provides in-home personal support services to those injured in a motor vehicle collision and who require attendant care, was also ordered to cease the same activities.
In addition, FSRA imposed a $7,500 administrative penalty on Belinska. The regulator had initially proposed to revoke Belinska and Happy Futures’ privileges for six months and impose a penalty of $10,000. This was later dropped down in a settlement with the regulator after Belinska first requested a hearing before the Financial Services Tribunal, before withdrawing that request.
The case was referred to FSRA after Belinska, on behalf of Happy Futures, submitted numerous invoices to Desjardins General Insurance Group, approximately totalling $50,000. Inaccuracies in the billing triggered Desjardins to investigate, including by ordering surveillance. The investigation confirmed that personal support services Belinska billed the company for were not provided to four Happy Futures clients. One client confirmed the investigation’s findings in a statutory declaration.
Desjardins “also found that the invoices included charges to DGIG (Desjardins) for personal support services on multiple dates and times for different clients in different locations, with overlap that rendered it impossible for the services to have been provided as claimed,” the notice of proposal in the case states. This is later repeated in the settlement minutes, as well. Desjardins reported the results of its investigation to the regulator in March 2023.
