Former B.C. Realtor has licence cancelled, $130K in penalties for role in mortgage fraud

A real estate sign is displayed in front of a house. (Evan Buhler / The Canadian Press)

Update, July 24: Rashin Rohani, the former Realtor referenced in this story, is appealing the BCFSA's decisions on both liability and sanctions to the B.C. Financial Services Tribunal. The appeal was filed on June 13, before the BCFSA published the sanctions decision on its website. The original story follows.

The provincial regulator responsible for policing B.C.'s real estate industry has ordered a former Realtor to pay $130,000 and cancelled her licence after determining that she committed a variety of professional misconduct.

Rashin Rohani surrendered her licence in December 2023, but the BC Financial Services Authority's chief hearing officer Andrew Pendray determined that it should nevertheless be cancelled as a signal to other licensees that "repetitive participation in deceptive schemes" will result in "significant" punishment.

He also ordered her to pay a $40,000 administrative penalty and $90,000 in enforcement expenses. Pendray explained his rationale for the penalties in a sanctions decision issued on May 17. The decision was published on the BCFSA website Wednesday. 

Rohani's misconduct occurred over a period of several years, and came in two distinct flavours, according to the decision.

Pendray found she had submitted mortgage applications for five different properties that she either owned or was purchasing, providing falsified income information on each one.

Each of these applications was submitted using a person referred to in the decision as "Individual 1" as a mortgage broker. Individual 1 was not a registered mortgage broker and – by the later applications – Rohani either knew or ought to have known this was the case, according to the decision.

All of that constituted "conduct unbecoming" under B.C.'s Real Estate Services Act, Pendray concluded.

Separately, Rohani also referred six clients to Individual 1 when she knew or ought to have known he wasn't a registered mortgage broker, and she received or anticipated receiving a referral fee from Individual 1 for doing so, according to the decision. Rohani did not disclose this financial interest in the referrals to her clients.

Pendray found all of that to constitute professional misconduct under the act.

'Deceptive' scheme

The penalties the chief hearing officer chose to impose for this behaviour were less severe than those sought by the BCFSA in the case, but more significant than those Rohani argued she should face.

Rohani submitted that the appropriate penalty for her conduct would be a six-month licence suspension or a $15,000 discipline penalty, plus $20,000 in enforcement expenses.

For its part, the BCFSA asked Pendray to cancel Rohani's licence and impose a $100,000 discipline penalty plus more than $116,000 in enforcement expenses.

Pendray's ultimate decision to cancel the licence and impose penalties and expenses totalling $130,000 reflected his assessment of the severity of Rohani's misconduct.

Unlike other cases referenced by the parties in their submissions, Rohani's misconduct was not limited to a single transaction involving falsified documents or a series of such transactions during a brief period of time, according to the decision.

"Rather, in this case Ms. Rohani repetitively, over the course of a number of years, elected to personally participate in a deceptive mortgage application scheme for her own benefit, and subsequently, arranged for her clients to participate in the same deceptive mortgage application scheme," the decision reads.

Pendray further noted that, although Rohani had been licensed for "a significant period of time," she had only completed a small handful of transactions, according to records from her brokerage.

There were just six transactions on which her brokerage recorded earnings for her between December 2015 and February 2020, according to the decision. Of those six, four were transactions that were found to have involved misconduct or conduct unbecoming.

"In sum, Ms. Rohani’s minimal participation in the real estate industry as a licensee has, for the majority of that minimal participation, involved her engaging in conduct unbecoming involving deceptive practices and professional misconduct," the decision reads.

According to the decision, Rohani must pay the $40,000 discipline penalty within 90 days of the date it was issued.