The B.C. Securities Commission permanently banned Johny Panyavong and Hope Moira Donna Thomas following findings by other authorities that they committed misconduct in separate, unrelated cases, the regulator announced Tuesday.
Panyavong pleaded guilty in B.C. Provincial Court in Surrey to theft and using forged documents. The court found that Panyavong misused $40,000 that he solicited from a B.C. investor for a real estate investment in 2016.
Instead of investing the funds, Panyavong used most of the investor’s funds to pay personal expenses. When asked about the status of the investment, he forged financial documents. Despite the client pressing for the return of the capital and profits that had allegedly accrued, the victim only recovered $10,000.
Panyavong was arrested in Ontario in 2019 on charges resulting from a BCSC investigation. He was ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution to the victim and sentenced to 18 months of probation.
Thomas’s ban came from a previous Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) finding that she had misappropriated a client’s funds.
Thomas, a former rep with CIBC Securities Inc. in Vancouver, opened a fake bank account in the client’s name, which she used to siphon off $59,000 in unauthorized redemptions from the client’s TFSA, misappropriated another $34,000 from the client’s joint bank account, and applied for a loan and a line of credit from the bank in the client’s name, taking another $59,000 that way.
Thomas used the funds for personal use and failed to pay back or otherwise account for the funds. Thomas admitted she took the funds because the client was elderly and trusted her.
In 2023, a CIRO panel banned her from conducting securities-related business and imposed a $300,000 fine and $10,000 in costs.