A hearing panel of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) has disciplined a registered representative with the Kitchener, Ont.-branch of Blackmont Capital Inc. for conducting discretionary trades without approval.

On Oct. 28, the panel accepted a settlement agreement between IIROC staff and Paul Patrick Futher. Futher admitted that between 2002 and 2006:

> he engaged in business conduct or practice which is detrimental to the public interest where he, without his client’s knowledge, conducted discretionary transactions in the account of KH, without being duly registered to do so and without those accounts being specifically approved and accepted as discretionary by Blackmont; and

> he failed to use due diligence to ensure that the recommendations he made for the account of client KH were appropriate for KH and in keeping with that client’s investment objectives and risk tolerance.

The hearing panel fined Futher $20,000 and suspended him from approval in any registered capacity with IIROC for a period of 60 days.

The panel also required that Futher’s re-approval as a registered rep be subject to the condition that he successfully complete a 12 month period of strict supervision by his employing firm, and that Futher pay costs in the amount of $6,000.

The Investment Dealers Association formally initiated the investigation into the Futhers’s conduct on Nov. 1, 2006.

Futher is currently an investment representative with the Kitchener branch of Blackmont.

The settlement agreement is available on the IIROC Web site. The panel will issue its reasons and decision at a latter date.