The Ontario Securities Commission has granted a motion from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) that will limit the evidence that Northern Securities Inc. (NSI), and the firm’s CEO, Vic Alboini, can give at a hearing to consider new sanctions stemming from an IIROC disciplinary decision.
Last December, the OSC set aside certain sanctions imposed on Alboini and NSI by IIROC and ordered that it would hold a new hearing to consider appropriate sanctions in the case. In that decision, the OSC found that the IIROC panel made an error of law, and it ruled that it was unfair for the IIROC panel to proceed with a sanctions hearing before it had issued its reasons in the original hearing on the merits of the case. (See Investment Executive, OSC extends stay of Northern penalties, February 21, 2013.)
In place of the IIROC panel’s sanctions, the OSC will now hold a hearing of its own, “solely on the question of the appropriate sanctions and costs to be imposed … based on the findings of the IIROC panel”. That hearing is now slated to start in June.
On Wednesday, the OSC said it has granted a motion from IIROC that will exclude certain affidavits filed by Alboini and NSI from evidence at the forthcoming hearing.The commission also ordered that certain witnesses can only testify to the character of Alboini, and their satisfaction in their dealings with Alboini and NSI; and, it said that Alboini’s testimony at the hearing must be limited to the matters described in the commission’s oral reasons, which were given at a motions hearing on May 12.
In addition to the order limiting that evidence, it ordered IIROC to file its materials in the case by May 30; that Alboini and NSI must file their response by June 4; and, that IIROC file any reply to that by June 6.