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TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission says four people have pleaded guilty to charges laid after thousands of confidential records were taken from two Toronto hospitals and used to market Registered Education Savings Plans to new parents.

Nellie Acar pleaded guilty to one count of secret commissions and one count of using a forged document, while Esther Cruz pleaded guilty to two counts of secret commissions.

Both were given six-month conditional sentences – the first three months of which are house arrest – and required to perform 340 hours of community service.

Acar admitted to knowingly using a forged document as if it were genuine and paying Cruz to provide her with patient information. Cruz admitted supplying Acar with patient information through her employment at the Rouge Valley Health System and the Scarborough Hospital.

In a similar case, Polina Edry and Subramanian Sulur each pleaded guilty to one count of participating in an improper referral arrangement with another person or company.

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Edry – a former branch manager for Knowledge First Financial Inc. – is scheduled to appear for sentencing on Aug. 23. Sentencing submissions for Sulur – a former assistant branch manager for C.S.T. Consultants Inc. – are scheduled for June 22.

Edry acknowledged in court that she purchased names of new parents from a former employee of the Rouge Valley Health System to use as sources of potential Registered Education Savings Plans investment sales leads.