Real estate agent gets licence pulled over outstanding fine
An experienced Port Coquitlam real estate agent had her licence suspended after failing to pay a fine stemming from a previous finding of professional misconduct.
Afsaneh Zarshenas, who worked for RE/MAX Sabre Realty Group, had been ordered to pay $50,000 within six months of the February judgment. She was also ordered to pay $5,200 in enforcement expenses within two months.
After failing to pay the $5,200 by April 4, the B.C. Financial Services Authority suspended her licence.
Local news that matters to you
No one covers the Tri-Cities like we do. But we need your help to keep our community journalism sustainable.
Noting that she had a family member who had been diagnosed with cancer, Zarshenas had asked for the February process to be adjourned.
Chief hearing officer Andrew Pendray declined her request.
After noting that Zarshenas’ proof was “limited to a single pathology report that was more than a year old,” Pendray ruled there wasn’t sufficient basis to grant a second adjournment.
The hearing had been scheduled since May 2024, Pendray noted.
“Zarshenas provided no submissions or evidence to indicate that there was any particular reason, related to her [family member]’s cancer diagnosis or otherwise, that she could not attend or prepare for the hearing,” Pendray concluded.
The Chaudhary connection
Zarshenas, a licensed real estate agent since 2004, was found to have been working with Jay Kanth Chaudhary also known as Mike Kumar.
Chaudhary used fake documents to help buyers get mortgage financing, working with real estate agents and mortgage brokers in the process.
From 2011 to 2018, Zarshenas referred at least 14 buyer clients to Chaudhary.
“She knew or ought to have known that he was not a registered mortgage broker, thereby putting her clients at risk,” according to a ruling from B.C. Financial Services Authority.
Other real estate agents have faced penalties for their dealings with Chaudhary.
Chaudhary had worked as a registered submortgage broker before being suspended in 2008. In 2017, investigators got a tip Chaudhary was working with real estate agents using fraudulent documents to secure mortgage funding.
Chaudhary charged a commission for securing mortgages and paid a portion of that commission to the licensed real estate agents who sent clients to him.
The resulting probe led investigators to search Chaudhary’s residences, seizing fax machines, cellphones, portable drives and mortgage files.
Chaudhary’s Excel spreadsheet listed Molenia Golshani of Evergreen West Realty in Coquitlam as the agent, “in relation to a number of transactions in which the purchasers used Chaudhary’s unregistered mortgage services to secure mortgage financing,” according to the decision.
Between 2013 and 2018, Golshani referred at least fourteen clients to Chaudhary in connection with Tri-Cities property deals.
In one instance, the property buyers alleged Golshani collected approximately $7,000 in cash as a “lender fee” to arrange mortgage financing. Golshani denied receiving any lender fee.
In another case, Golshani’s clients lost their deposit on a home when Chaudhary didn’t secure mortgage financing.
Golshani also placed advertisements in a Farsi-language newspaper between 2017 and 2019 pledging that she worked with a team of mortgage brokers who could provide mortgage services for clients without proof of income.
Author
