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by Mike Caswell

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization has imposed $695,000 in sanctions against former RBC Dominion Securities Inc. employee Regal Donald Eric Espeseth for discretionary trading and falsifying trading tickets. CIRO claims that Mr. Espeseth entered trades that generated significant gains for his clients, but those trades came with Mr. Espeseth having failed to obtain prior approval. The trades also generated $4.4-million in commissions over a two-year period, according to CIRO.

The penalties for Mr. Espeseth are contained in a decision that CIRO released on Nov. 26, 2025. The $695,000 includes disgorgement of $600,000, plus a $75,000 fine and $20,000 in CIRO's costs. The payouts represent a negotiated settlement, in which Mr. Espeseth has admitted to the violations.

The case, as set out in the decision, stems from futures trades that Mr. Espeseth entered for his clients from July, 2020, to March, 2022. At the time, he worked for an RBC branch in Saskatoon, with most of his clients being commodity producers who were familiar with hedging for agricultural commodities. Some clients traded millions of dollars in assets, while others had as little as $25,000, the decision states.

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