A regulatory hearing panel has fined and banned a former mutual fund sales representative who misappropriated money from a client’s account and didn’t cooperate with the investigation into his conduct.
A former rep with Investors Group Financial Services Inc. in Victoria, B.C., Ken David Derksen, was permanently banned, fined $315,000 and ordered to pay $10,000 in costs by a hearing panel of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA).
The sanctions follow a finding that Derksen violated MFDA rules when, between November 2016 and May 2020, he misappropriated over $100,000 from a client’s bank account and engaged in personal financial dealings with that client. Beginning in June 2020, he failed to cooperate with an investigation into his conduct.
The panel didn’t release its reasons for the decision.
In its notice of hearing against him, the MFDA alleged that Derksen was given access to a client’s bank account so that he could help manage the client’s financial affairs while the client was travelling for an extended period.
However, the regulator alleged that he used that access to transfer $155,800 from the account to his own account, and failed to repay $114,951.
In addition to misappropriating the client’s money, the SRO alleged that Derksen engaged in personal financial dealings with a client by accepting access to the client’s bank account.