Rep banned for forging passing grade for failed course

A former rep has been banned after falsely claiming that he’d passed a required proficiency course that he repeatedly failed.

The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) settled with Hyongsuk Kim, a former rep based in Surrey, B.C., who agreed to a permanent ban and a $10,000 fine after admitting to providing false information to a prospective new dealer.

According to the settlement agreement, Kim supplied the false information to an investment dealer that was seeking to reactivate his registration.

Specifically, Kim informed the dealer that he’d successfully passed the Wealth Management Essentials course, when in fact he’d failed the course three times.

“To support the false information…Kim forged a notice of completion of the WME course and provided it to the dealer,” the settlement noted.

While the forgery aggravated the misconduct, the settlement also indicated a mitigating factor was that “Kim is remorseful” and admitted to the misconduct early on.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.