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by Mike Caswell

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization has permanently banned Christina (Lorna) Cole, a former BMO Investments Inc. employee in the small B.C. town of Squamish, over money that she misappropriated from the accounts of deceased clients. CIRO said that Ms. Cole transferred the money into general accounts at the bank before accessing it for personal use. She was caught when BMO started looking into a bank draft she had used.

The penalties for Ms. Cole are contained in a decision that CIRO released on Tuesday, July 28. In addition to receiving a permanent ban from the industry, Ms. Cole must pay a $50,000 fine and $7,500 in CIRO's costs. There was no hearing for Ms. Cole, as she admitted to the violations.

The case, as set out by CIRO, arose from the account of a client, only identified as "WA," who died on Oct. 10, 2023. About two weeks after the client's death, Ms. Cole redeemed investments totalling $24,258 in the client's account and moved the money to a suspense account used by her branch, CIRO said. Ms. Cole then moved nearly all of that money through two other accounts before depositing it into her own personal account at a credit union.

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