Former BMO adviser passed along wads of cash to a lawyer convicted of insider trading

Looks like Royal Bank isn’t the only major financial institution with a shady employee or two. A BMO Nesbitt Burns financial adviser, Sandy Bortolin, has been banned from working in securities after years of highly suspicious behaviour (i.e., passing along envelopes full of cash in a money-laundering scheme) came to light. The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada ruled Bortolin acted improperly in dealings with Stan Grmovsek, a former client now in jail for fraud, insider trading and money laundering. (Grmovsek received insider-trading tips about pending takeover deals from a law school classmate and laundered the money through Bahamas bank accounts set up by Bortolin). The IIROC says Bortolin should have been suspicious about Grmovsek’s activities and reported them to management, and accuses him of misleading both BMO and its investigators. The adviser was fired from BMO in 2009, but he’ll have to come up with some money, somehow: the IIROC has ordered him to pay $100,000 in costs along with a massive $500,000 disgorgement. Where’s an envelope full of cash when you need one? [Globe and Mail]