A Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) hearing panel has published its reasons for decision in the matter of Baljit Bassi Rana, a Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc. dealing representative from the Golden, British Columbia area.
The decision states that Rana will pay a fine in the amount of $18,000 and costs totalling $2,500 after the representative admitted she photocopied signature pages, altered client account forms without obtaining client initials to acknowledge the changes, and obtained and in some instances used pre-signed forms.
Registered for two months in 2007 before later registering with Sun Life beginning in April 2011, Rana is specifically accused of photocopying signatures pages from forms signed by two clients, and reusing the signature pages on four account forms, submitting those forms to Sun Life for processing. The first transgression reportedly occurred in February 2019. The altered account forms, meanwhile, were dated between March 2018 and June 2020. It was also later discovered that she kept and used the pre-signed account forms between November 2016 and January 2021.
The altered forms were first discovered by the firm in March 2021 while conducting daily trade reviews. November 2021 the firm issued a warning letter and placed Rana under close supervision. “We understand that the member required the respondent to pay a fee of $400 per month in relation to this close supervision and that, as of the date of the settlement hearing, the respondent had paid the member $7,200 in close supervision fees, plus an additional $2,500 fine arising from the conduct described,” the reasons for decision states.
