BC realtor hit with $20,000 fine for not filing reports
A Lower Mainland realtor has agreed to pay a $20,000 “disciplinary penalty” and $3,000 in expenses after failing to file year-end reports for two consecutive years.
Failure to pay the fine and to submit the long-awaited reports by mid-October will result in the loss of his licence, according to a consent order posted by the BC Financial Services Authority.
Sung-Han (Hanson) Wang is the managing broker of Ohm Realty Corp., doing business as Ohmproperty. He got his licence in 2012 and his company’s licence was issued in 2017.
Brokerage firms have to file financial reports within 120 days of their fiscal year ends for things like engagement financial statements, accountants’ reports and brokerage activity reports.
Wang’s fiscal year ends are December 31 so he had to file his reports by April 30 of each year.
In May 2021, he was asked to provide his overdue 2020 reports. Two weeks later he asked for an extension until the end of June but the BC Financial Services Authority does not normally grant extensions for accountant’s reports, although some extensions were granted over the following months and years.
Over the course of that time, BC Financial Services made repeated requests for the reports and Wang made repeated requests for extensions and made various excuses for the delays.
Those excuses included personal illness, a turnover of accountants and COVID delays. In at least one case, when the financial authority contacted Wang’s accountant, it was told they had yet to receive the necessary documents from Wang.
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The 2020 reports were finally filed earlier this month, about a week before the Sept. 14 date of the consent order. The 2021 and 2022 reports had not been filed by that time.
This is not the first time Wang has run afoul of the authorities.
While the consent order doesn’t give dates or details, it does say Wang was disciplined previously for contravening the rules and another time for advertising infractions.
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