The Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) has fined Richmond, British Columbia area dealing representative, Geng (Marshall) Liu, $20,000, plus costs in the amount of $5,000 after Liu admitted to keeping pre-signed forms and to altering forms for use without getting clients to first initial the alterations.
The MFDA says there is no evidence of client loss, client complaint or lack of authorization but still levied the penalties after finding 14 pre-signed account forms for eight different clients and 27 account forms that were altered and used for processing for 20 clients. The altered forms included alterations to a client’s employer information, to fund codes, dollar amounts, beneficiary designations, fund account numbers and know your client information.
Liu has been registered in the securities industry since July 2011, working as a dealing representative with Queen Financial Group Inc. since September 2017.
First discovered during a 2019 compliance examination, Liu’s firm wrote to affected clients in May 2020 to determine if the forms had been used for unauthorized transactions. It issued a disciplinary letter to Liu, placed him on heightened supervision for six months and required him to complete industry coursework.
