An ex-mutual fund salesman accused of using a $73,000 investment to cover his girlfriend’s personal expenses is already in the midst of fighting a $100,000 fine imposed on him earlier this year for selling off-book securities.
Robert Bruce Rush allegedly told an investor she could use her locked pension funds to purchase a bond that would be used as collateral to borrow money and invest, the B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) announced July 7.
A hearing into the allegations will be set on July 22, but Rush is already fighting a February decision made by the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) that permanently banned him from any business related to securities.
The MFDA also fined him a total of $100,000 in costs and penalties after determining he had sold foreign exchange investments to people off the books while working for Sun Life Financial between 2005 and 2007.
The BCSC accused Rush off convincing another investor in 2008 to cut a cheque for $73,000 he promised would be forwarded to a foreign exchange investment program run by Alberta businessman Francoise Joseph Leon Michaud.
Michaud has since been permanently banned from the securities markets in both B.C. and Alberta.
Instead of sending the money to Michaud, the BCSC said Rush kept it for himself and used part of it on his girlfriend.
The investor lost all her money and ended up remortgaging her house.
None of the allegations have been proven.
