A hearing panel of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada has imposed a lifetime ban on an Ottawa man Ltd. for misappropriating funds from accounts held in his mother’s name.

James Brennan was an approved person at the Ottawa branch office of Assante Capital Management Ltd.

On Dec. 9, 2005, an IDA hearing panel accepted a settlement agreement negotiated between IDA staff and Brennan. Pursuant to the agreement, Brennan was found to have misappropriated approximately $124,000 from three accounts held in his mother’s name for which he was the approved person at Assante. Brennan forged his mother’s signature in order to execute the withdrawals. The funds were misappropriated between November 2000 and June 2003,

From February 2001 to March 2003, Brennan sent his mother false statements for two of the three accounts that included inflated values in the accounts. He also created at least six false statements for a purely fictitious account in order to disguise the misappropriation.

In addition to the lifetime ban, the IDA fined Brennan $275,000 and ordered him to pay $15,000 in costs.

Brennan is not currently employed as an IDA registrant.

For a complete summary of facts, please see IDA Bulletin 3497.

IDA Web site

http://www.ida.ca