Representative thrown out of the industry 10 years for outside activities

A Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) hearing panel has accepted a settlement agreement with Donald Lorne Gable, wherein Gable agreed to a 10-year suspension and $36,000 fine for outside business activities – those that were not carried on for the account of his dealer, Quadrus Investment Services Ltd.

Gable is also being sanctioned for participating in a referral arrangement that the dealer was also not a party to, for failing to report to the dealer that he’d received a client complaint and for failing to report that he paid compensation to the client to settle the complaint.

The former dealing representative, first registered in March 2008, was terminated in February 2021 when the firm was named as a defendant in civil action alongside one of the companies Gable recommended.

The firm noted in its investigation also that Gable signed three annual attestations indicating that he had received and read the firm’s code of conduct, policies and procedures, which prohibit the outside activity and which require those receiving complaints to refer them to supervisory staff for handling.

In 2017 Gable referred two clients to invest in four companies. Those two clients invested $350,000. He also recommended and facilitated the sale of investments in one of the companies to an individual identified as KH in the settlement agreement. After investing $175,000 in convertible notes which failed to return the principal and interest promised, KH later brought the civil action against the company, Gable and Quadrus, settling for $182,500. “The respondent did not personally contribute to the compensation that KH received,” the settlement agreement notes. 

When another client sent Gable a written complaint about her investment in the same company, Gable sent 20 email transfers back to the client, totalling $50,000 to compensate her for the full principal she invested in the company, identified only as Company B in the agreement.

In addition to the fine and prohibition from conducting any securities related business for any CIRO member firm for 10 years, Gable was also ordered to pay costs in the amount of $7,500.