According to a decision made by the Life Insurance Council under the Alberta Insurance Council (AIC), the AIC is fining former agent, Adile Tamguicht, $5,000, the maximum penalty that can be imposed, after the agent allegedly misappropriated client funds for his personal gain.
Formerly a life insurance and an accident and sickness insurance agent in Alberta, Tamguicht was terminated in late April 2019 for his conduct. A report by his unnamed agency to the AIC said the firm determined that the advisor had personal financial dealings with the client in question while his license was suspended by the AIC. The firm also determined that the former advisor directed funds from a client’s segregated funds redemption into his own person corporate account after the client submitted a complaint to alleging that the agent had acquired $17,822.90 of his Locked In Retirement Account (LIRA) funds for his own personal use. The client alleges that some of the forms he signed for Tamguicht were different than the ones sent to the insurer, he accuses the agent of forging his signature on some forms and says Tamguicht sent his own personal check to the insurer in place of the void check the client provided.
According to Tamguicht’s version of events, the client expressly instructed him to deposit the funds into his corporate account. “The agent defended his actions and stated that he sought the guidance of the sponsor’s client service department regarding the transfer and was advised that a transfer from the client’s LIRA account to the agent’s corporate account was permissible so long as the client consented to the transfer,” the AIC writes in its decision. Later they say the agency’s managing general agency’s chief compliance officer confirmed to the AIC that “the agency and the sponsor would not instruct an advisor to direct client funds into their own personal or business accounts.”
During an interview with the AIC, the former agent said the client wanted to hide money from his wife. When asked why the client would submit a complaint if he knew where the money was, the former agent speculated that the client probably took this course of action because the client’s wife had discovered the LIRA redemption.
According to the AIC’s decision, the council found that the supporting materials provided in the case demonstrated that the agent acted in a dishonest, deceitful, fraudulent and untrustworthy manner. “Moreover, were the agent’s alternative version of events to be accepted, he knowingly assisted the client in sheltering assets from his spouse. As such, the council could not support that the agent’s statements were not, in fact, dishonest or deceitful.”
