The Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) has sanctioned former Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc. advisor, Matthew Elliott de Haan, banning de Haan from conducting any securities related business in any capacity with any MFDA member firm for five years. The MFDA also fined de Haan $15,000, levying both sanctions after he admitted that he engaged in unapproved, outside business activities.
In an agreed statement of facts, de Haan admitted that between October 29, 2018 and December 3, 2018, he solicited seven individuals, including one client, to invest in an investment that was not approved for sale by Sun Life Financial Investment Services. He also admitted to misleading the firm during the course of its investigation into his conduct. Registered since July 2016 and carrying on business in Abbotsford, British Columbia, de Haan resigned in November 2018 and is not currently registered in the securities industry in any capacity.
de Haan’s involvement in the outside activity began after he accepted a sales role with Impact International Secured Investments Corporation, to solicit investors to provide capital to Impact to sponsor the formation of bonds offered by the company, to purchase bonds, or to serve as working capital for underlying projects for which impact was arranging financing. de Haan received a 10 per cent commission on closed transactions. During the course of his work with Impact, de Haan obtained promotional materials to use when soliciting investors for a windfarm project, introduced investors to the opportunity, provided promotional materials and discussed terms and features, including purported rates of return. de Haan also provided investors with an assessment of the risks and merits of the investment and recommended the investment to investors.
When his firm became aware of his activities, it commenced an investigation into his conduct. During an interview, he then told Sun Life that he had solicited investors for Impact but had not solicited clients to invest.
