Penthouse party host permanently banned by investment industry regulator over forgeries

Mohammad Movassaghi leaves provincial court in Vancouver, on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A Vancouver man known for throwing a wild party in a penthouse apartment against B.C.'s COVID-19 restrictions has now been banned from working in Canada’s investment industry.

The penalty against former investment advisor Mohammad Movassaghi followed a hearing in the fall, in which a federal panel examined allegations of forgeries and misrepresentations.

The decision at the end of the hearing, posted online earlier this month, includes a permanent ban on any registration with the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).

The organization also fined Movassaghi $50,000 for forgeries and $50,000 for misleading the IIROC, and ordered him to pay $60,000 in associated costs.

Movassaghi made headlines in B.C. early last year over what police called a "makeshift nightclub" being operated in a downtown Vancouver condo building.

Police arrested Movassaghi and issued more than $17,000 in fines to partygoers caught breaking provincial health others. 

Court documents outlined what police said they found inside the three-level condo, including bartenders, exotic dancers and 100 McDonald's cheeseburgers. 

A month after the "club" was busted, Movassaghi was charged with unlawfully purchasing grain alcohol, in addition to the two counts he already faced of failure to comply with an order of a health officer. 

To help cover legal costs, Movassaghi purportedly launched an online fundraiser with a goal of $100,000. 

"To date, there has been no reported COVID case associated with the party," it read. "Approximately $10,000 in cash was taken from me, about $5,000 in liquor, and a series of personal items. There is also property damage I cannot fix given my bail conditions … I have staff to pay."

He then pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to one day in jail, 18 months' probation and a $5,000 fine.

Since that time, civil action has been filed in B.C. Supreme Court that could see the owner stripped of his property, including the $2.8-million condo.

But before all that happened in 2021, Movassaghi was being investigated by IIROC.

According to the organization, he'd been under investigation since 2017. At that point, he was a registered representative with the Vancouver branch of Harbourfront Wealth Management, Inc., a firm regulated by IIROC. In August 2021, a hearing panel found that Movassaghi falsified client signatures on account documentation and misled IIROC enforcement staff in sworn interviews.

Through his lawyer, who is also his brother, he informed enforcement counsel that he would not be participating in the proceedings and that he denied some of the allegations. He did admit to forging one client's signature on at least nine documents, according to the panel's summary of the hearing, and "took no position" on many of the other allegations.

His lawyer added that Movassaghi is no longer working in the industry.

According to IIROC documents, the pair then stopped communicating entirely with counsel.