In order to resolve a disciplinary proceeding before a Panel of the Disciplinary Committee concerning alleged professional misconduct against him, Leslie Haoen Shen, also known as Haoen Shen, of Burnaby, British Columbia has agreed to voluntarily relinquish his membership in the Organization of Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (“CPABC”), effective November 26, 2021.
The professional misconduct alleged against Mr. Shen involves a breach of the Chartered Professional Accountants Act, S.B.C. 2015, c.1 (the “CPA Act”) and numerous breaches of the CPABC Code of Professional Conduct, including misappropriating for his personal use significant funds of a former employer, a publicly traded company, while he was employed as its Chief Financial Officer; concealing the misappropriation by falsifying bank statements, invoices and financial statements, as well as recording payments made to him personally in the former employer’s accounting records as purported corporate expenses; concealing the misappropriation by misstating, over a two-year period, the financial statements, quarterly filings, and an annual filing of the former employer in order to reflect an overstatement of certain expenses; falsifying bank statements of the former employer to facilitate his repayment of a portion of the misappropriated funds of the former employer (which occurred once he learned that he would be replaced as its Chief Financial Officer); providing false or misleading information to CPABC’s Investigator about the misappropriation; and failing to provide information requested by CPABC’s Investigator in the investigation into his role in the misappropriation, necessitating an application to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in order to compel, under sections 51(7) and (8) of the CPA Act, the production of the information sought by CPABC’s Investigator.
Mr. Shen denies all of the allegations above.
As Mr. Shen is no longer a member of CPABC, he cannot use or display the designations “Chartered Professional Accountant”, “Chartered Accountant”, or “Professional Accountant”, the initials “CPA”, “CA”, “CPA, CA”, or “PA”, or imply, suggest, or hold out that he is a Chartered Professional Accountant or Professional Accountant.