Learn extra: Former funding advisor answerable for misappropriating almost $600,000
The MFDA had beforehand fined Chau $60,000 in 2017 after an extra compliance examination in 2015, and after Chau had didn’t co-operate with MFDA employees between 2010 and 2014.
The most recent resolution outlined how Chau failed in his obligation because the UDP to oversee a former authorised individual on the firm. A brand new chief compliance officer (CCO), appointed in response to compliance points raised by the MFDA in 2013, repeatedly raised issues concerning the enterprise conduct of an worker and the way she was not precisely recording KYC info from shoppers. Chau, the CCO mentioned, was “unresponsive” to those points.
In 2017, the CCO was nonetheless recording issues about the identical individual and advisable to Chau that they be terminated. The MFDA discovered that insufficient steps had been taken to handle this and make sure that the KYC info was correct. The worker in query was finally fired.
As regards to guaranteeing compliance deficiencies recognized in 2014 had been handled, in 2016, the CCO submitted a report which acknowledged there have been a number of situations the place massive trades had been made simply days after a line of credit score or dwelling fairness mortgage was authorised for a consumer. Chau didn’t take any supervisory steps to assessment the possibly leveraged transactions and has no document of any conversations he mentioned he had with staff concerning this concern.
