The Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) has entered into a settlement agreement with former Investia Financial Services Inc. representative, Andrey Belskiy, fining Belskiy $5,000 and banning him from conducting business with any MFDA member firm for nine months.
In the agreement, Belskiy admitted to altering and using three account forms for three different clients between September 2015 and August 2019 without getting clients to initial the alterations before they were used to process transactions. The alterations included two instances where he added a fund code and fund number and one instance of altering a client’s net worth.
During the course of the June 2020 branch review which uncovered the altered forms, the firm also discovered 26 pre-signed forms on file for 19 different clients. Registered in the securities industry since 2009 and working for Investia since 2012, the firm placed the representative under strict supervision for 90 days and ordered him to pay $799 for the supervision and to cover the cost of letters mailed to clients.
Belskiy resigned from Investia in January 2022 and is not currently registered in the securities industry in any capacity. In addition to the fine and the nine-month ban, Belskiy also agreed to pay the MFDA’s costs in the amount of $2,500.
