A Nanaimo mutual fund dealer who “misappropriated” nearly $6 million from elderly and disabled clients has been fined and barred from the investment services industry, a regulatory hearing panel in Vancouver has ruled.
The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) Pacific District hearing panel found veteran mutual fund dealer Michael Rowland Tomkins deceived several elderly clients with health problems between 2007 and 2023 while working for Assante Financial Management Ltd. and Assante Capital Management Ltd.
Tomkins deliberately deceived both the clients and Assante by providing inaccurate or false information, the hearing panel stated in its reasons for judgement published online May 7.
The panel said Tomkins did this to give himself greater levels of control and to reduce the likelihood of detection.
“He committed serious transgressions, involving large sums of money. He engaged in an ongoing pattern of intentional deception. This was far from an isolated lapse in judgment,” the ruling stated.
“The clients were elderly and vulnerable, with noted health concerns.”
The panel said Tomkins’ deceptive processes included fabricating investment vehicles, investment portfolio summary reports and client transactions.
He also admitted that he used all of the funds for his own personal benefit.
The ruling determined Tomkins misappropriated $5.9 million from five clients and has returned $1.6 million.
Tomkins reached a settlement agreement with CIRO last February. He agreed to a permanent ban from the regulated industry, disgorgement of $1.27 million of misappropriated funds, a $1 million fine and $10,000 for hearing costs.
Trouble began for Tomkins in October 2023 when one of the clients informed him that they would be moving their investments to another firm. Consequently, Tomkins voluntarily resigned from Assante. He has not been employed at a CIRO-regulated firm since.
The ruling stated Tomkins has “accepted responsibility for his misconduct” and at the hearing he “expressed deep remorse for what he had done.”
The ruling does not clarify many of the details of the so-called “misappropriation.”
BIV asked the regulator if it had referred the Tomkins file to RCMP for investigation of any criminality. Court Services Online shows Tomkins has no criminal record or outstanding allegations.
CIRO spokesperson Ariel Visconti said the industry-led agency "provides information on police involvement in specific cases only when such details have been made public" but did not address Tomkins' case.
Last year CIRO collected 15 per cent of issued fines.
Successful collection of outstanding fines depends on the availability of assets of the respondents, Visconti added.
In separate proceedings in B.C. Supreme Court, retired tree nursery owners Daniel Juss and Brenda Juss allege Tomkins and Assante Capital committed fraud against them
The February 2024 claim alleges the Juss family hired Tomkins in 1990 to look after their investments while they operated the Molecey Pacific Ltd tree nursery, which is also a plaintiff.
The Juss family provided Tomkins with $4.2 million of retirement savings between 1998 and 2023, a period during which Daniel Juss overcame a stroke and battled cancer, the claim stated.
On Oct.8, 2023, the Juss family claimed they requested their money be transferred to Scotia Wealth Management.
But on Nov.1, 2023 the couple got a call from Assante’s compliance officer to inform them that Assante had “no record of many of the retirement investments, nor the vast majority of retirement funds.”
The claim alleges Michael Tomkins and Karla Tomkins used the retirement funds to purchase properties, including their Nanaimo home on Westdale Road, a lake property in Port Alberni and an office in Nanaimo.
The Juss family described Tomkins as their friend before the alleged misappropriation.
They claim Tomkins has not returned their money and his conduct “is high-handed, callous, reprehensible and constitutes a marked departure from ordinary standards of deceptive behaviour.”
Their claim also names Hammond Bay Investments Inc. for receiving just over $1 million in funds from Michael Tomkins. Those funds are alleged to not yet have been returned.
Karla Tomkins was sole director of Hammond Bay Investments Inc. as of its 2017 dissolution.
In their Jan. 23, 2025, response to the claim, Assante Capital Management (ACM) and Assante Wealth Management (AFM) — where Tomkins worked — both deny the Juss family’s allegations.
“At all times, ACM and AFM met their regulatory and other legal obligations concerning their supervision of Mr. Tomkins with respect to the accounts,” Assante stated via Vancouver law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.
Assante is seeking to dismiss itself from the claim on technical grounds that the Jussfamily’s claim of conversion — the wrongful interference with the goods of another — is not available with respect to intangible property such as the theft of funds.
“The plaintiffs knew or ought to have known that their private investments with Mr. Tomkins were separate from the investments that the plaintiffs held in the accounts,” Assante’s response stated, “and that their private investments were not offered, authorized or known by ACM or AFM.”
The Assante response claims Tomkins was a contractor.
Karla Ann Tomkins, aka Karla Ann Taylor, also denies the Juss family’s allegations.
She said she “was the spouse” of Michael Tomkins, who allegedly caused Hammond to be incorporated in 1990.
Karla Tomkins is represented by Nanaimo law firm Ramsay Lampman Rhodes.
Michael Tomkins has yet to file a response to the claim, of which the allegations are unproven. BIV was unable to reach him for comment.
