The Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA) says that between March 2003 and March 2013, Marilyn Dianne Stuart and Walter Howard Stuart, owners of the Ontario-based W. H. Stuart Mutuals fund dealer, solicited and accepted approximately $6 million from more than 180 clients. The Stuarts told clients that they had invested these funds on their behalf in the firm's "Note Program", but the MFAA claims that the Stuarts used these funds for their own benefit, and that they actively concealed, falsified, and withheld related documents from MFDA auditors.

The MFDA also allege that the Stuarts have misappropriated or otherwise failed to account for more than $800,000 of investments and monies from over thirty clients, including cash balances in client accounts, the proceeds of redemptions that were not deposited in client accounts, funds that clients had asked W. H. Stuart to transfer to other financial institutions, as well as taxes owing but not remitted to the Canada Revenue Agency.

According to the MFDA, Dianne Stuart and W. H. Stuart failed to co-operate in its investigation, and failed to attend an interview staff had requested. The regulator has now begun a disciplinary proceeding against the Stuarts, and the first hearing is scheduled to take place in Toronto on Jan. 6, 2015.