Former fund rep back in OSC’s crosshairs

A former mutual fund rep, who was banned by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) 27 years ago, is now facing fraud allegations.

Back in 1998, an OSC hearing panel ordered that Dino Delellis — who was a fund rep with The Height of Excellence Financial Planning Group Inc. in London, Ont. — was permanently banned from registration after it found that he breached a number of securities rules in connection with the sale of a series of limited partnerships that invested in a cattle breeding scheme.

Among other things, the panel found that Delellis accepted undisclosed commissions, made misrepresentations to investors, and breached his fiduciary duty to investors.

Now, following an investigation by the OSC’s Criminal Investigations & Prosecutions team, Delellis has been charged with fraud and “making a prohibited representation” to investors, the regulator announced.

The new allegations have not been proven.

Delellis is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 2 to answer those charges.

The OSC alleged that Delellis defrauded a couple of investors between July 2022 and the end of 2023.

“Specifically, it is alleged that Mr. Delellis used investor money for personal expenses, failed to invest funds as promised, promised to repay losses if one of the investors bought securities from him, and used a fake name to obscure his record of securities misconduct,” the regulator said in a release.

In 2020, a rep with CIBC World Markets Inc. was also sanctioned for his involvement with a so-called “gifting club” that he was introduced to by Delellis — which regulators found amounted to a pyramid scheme.

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.