The Mutual Fund Dealers Association has commenced disciplinary proceedings against a missing Ontario mutual fund sales rep for soliciting money from clients, providing false account statements and abandoning his business.
The MFDA issued a notice of hearing today, in which its staff alleges that between November 2000 and February 2003, Robert Parkinson:
- solicited about $314,000 from clients, and failed to return or otherwise account for these monies;
- provided false account statements; and, in February 2003, abandoned his business as a mutual fund salesperson without notice to his clients or to his fund dealer, “thereby frustrating the ability of the mutual fund dealer and the MFDA to investigate his conduct”.
At the time, Parkinson was with fund dealer IPC Investment Corp.
None of the allegations has been proven. The MFDA has scheduled a teleconference before a hearing panel of its Ontario Regional Council on February 23 to schedule the date for the commencement of the hearing on its merits and to schedule any other procedural matters.
However, the notice issued today notes that after Parkinson failed to report for work in February 2003, a missing persons report was filed by his family. He was stopped by police for a routine traffic violation shortly after that, and denied he was missing. According to the MFDA, he, “has not been heard from since and his whereabouts remain unknown”.
Due to his disappearance, “neither IPC nor the MFDA have been able to obtain any information or documents from him regarding [this case].”