A hearing panel of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) has accepted a settlement agreement, with sanctions, between IIROC staff and Elizabeth Maureen Morrison.

With this agreement, Morrison admits that she failed in her know-your-client and suitability obligations when she facilitated investments in a private placement for approximately 179 clients, but failed to ensure the investment was suitable for many of those clients. Morrison also failed to question whether many of the clients qualified for the exemption she was relying on to make the purchases. Morrison’s clients invested more than $10 million in that private placement.

Morrison has agreed to penalties which include a $30,000 fine and $5,000 in costs. She must also successfully rewrite the Conduct and Practices Handbook examination by December 31, 2011.

The hearing panel’s decision and its reasons for accepting the agreement will be made available at www.iiroc.ca.

Specifically, Ms. Morrison admits that she:

• failed to use due diligence to learn and remain informed of the essential facts relative to every client and to every order or account accepted, contrary to IIROC Rule 1300.1(a) ;

• failed to use due diligence to ensure that the acceptance of any order from a customer is suitable for such customer, contrary to IIROC Rule 1300.1(p); and

• facilitated the purchase of a private placement by clients for which the issuer relied on certain exemptions from the registration and prospectus requirements of applicable securities legislation when those clients did not qualify for exemption, contrary to IIROC Rule 29.1.

The violations occurred between September 2004 and October 2005, when Morrison was a registered representative with the Calgary branch of Blackmont Capital Inc., now known as Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., an IIROC-regulated firm. IIROC began its investigation into Ms. Morrison’s conduct in September 2010. Morrison is currently a registered representative with the Calgary branch of PI Financial Corp., an IIROC-regulated firm.