A former mutual fund rep who admitted to misappropriating money from an elderly client — in part to repay another client that he also took money from — has now been sanctioned in a settlement with the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO).
A hearing panel of the industry self-regulatory organization (SRO) approved a proposed settlement with a former rep with TD Investment Services Inc. in Toronto, George Alexander Abisaleh, who admitted to violating the SRO’s rules between April 2017 and July 2022 by misappropriating money from two clients.
According to the settlement, starting in 2017, Abisaleh began misappropriating money from an elderly (77-year-old) client by transferring money from the client’s bank and investment accounts to his own accounts.
Abisaleh hid the illicit transfers from an individual that began assisting with the client’s financial affairs under a power of attorney, after they moved into an assisted living facility in 2019, by providing them with falsified bank and investment account statements.
In total, he took about $214,500 from the client, some of which was used to trade options and lost, while some of the money was used to pay back another client that he’d taken $51,500 from in early 2022.
The settlement noted that Abisaleh was terminated by the bank on July 4, 2022 for “unrelated” reasons. On July 6, one of his former clients complained to the bank about money missing from their account — and, on July 7, Abisaleh purchased a bank draft for $51,509 from his own account and deposited that money into the client’s account to cover the money he’d misappropriated earlier.
Under the settlement, Abisaleh was permanently banned and ordered to disgorge $214,500. He was also fined $50,000 and agreed to pay $10,000 in costs.
The settlement also noted that the bank paid compensation to the elderly client.