In two separate settlement agreements, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) has handed out sanctions for pre-signed forms. In one case, a representative kept 35 forms for three different clients. In a second decision the respondent personally led a team responsible for thousands of blank, pre-signed forms kept in a spare cubicle.
The second case is the latest sanction being handed down to supervisors and representatives with the Hunter Financial Group, a financial team within Scotia Capital Inc.’s Saskatoon office.
The group’s leader, Bart William Hunter is the latest to settle with CIRO after approximately 3,000 pre-signed forms pertaining to Hunter group clients were collected by Scotia during an investigation. “The respondent personally signed 682 of these forms,” Hunter’s settlement agreement states. Hunter is not currently working in any registered capacity or otherwise with any CIRO member firms.
Related:
- Subordinate team’s pre-signed forms ends in sanctions for branch manager
- Rep sanctioned after more than 3,000 pre-signed forms recovered
Registered from January 2012 until February 2021, Hunter is further suspended from acting in a registered capacity for three months, must pay a fine in the amount of $70,000 and costs in the amount of $5,000. If he re-registers, he must be under close supervision for 10 months and must successfully rewrite the Conduct and Practices Handbook exam.
Similar behaviour on a much smaller scale, meanwhile, will cost Roxanne Carter, a former Quadrus Investment Services Ltd. dealing representative, a fine in the amount of $10,000 and costs in the amount of $5,000 for keeping 35 pre-signed forms for three different clients and for altering transaction account forms for two clients without obtaining the client’s initials. Registered since July 2004, Carter resigned in October 2022 and is not currently registered in any capacity.
