The Upper Tribunal of the UK financial regulatory regime has imposed fines on two men involved in a firm that distributed types of bonds, and has banned one of the pair from the financial industry.

The UK financial regulator said its upper tribunal has issued a judgement that imposes a fine on two men involved in the firm Catalyst Investment Group, which distributed bonds in circumstances that authorities said were misleading.

The Upper Tribunal has released its judgement in relation to Timothy Roberts and Andrew Wilkins of Catalyst Investment Group, the Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement.

The tribunal imposed a fine of £450,000 ($628,597) on Roberts and banned him from performing any role in regulated financial services; it also fined Wilkins £50,000. It referred back to the FCA a decision on whether to impose a prohibition on Wilkins. It remains open to the parties to appeal the Tribunal’s judgement, the statement said.

In August 2013 the FCA fined Roberts £450,000 and imposed a full prohibition on him, and fined Wilkins £100,000 and prohibited him from undertaking significant influence functions. The men referred the FCA’s decisions to the Tribunal, leading to its judgement.

Roberts was a director and chief executive of Catalyst, the UK distributor of bonds issued by ARM Asset Backed Securities, of which Roberts was also a director. Wilkins was a director of Catalyst until 23 March 2010, and was involved in compliance issues, especially in relation to financial promotions.

ARM was a securitisation vehicle based in Luxembourg. It issued bonds and used the proceeds to invest in traded life assurance policies (also known as senior life settlement policies). ARM’s bond programme was registered with the Irish Stock Exchange and traded on its regulated market.