A photo of Afsaneh Zarshenas, also known as Afsi Dashti, posted by Remax Sabre on social media last year to celebrate 20 years with the brokerage (photo: Instagram).
A British Columbia real estate licence holder faces a new suspension after failing to cooperate with a provincial regulator’s inquiry into allegations she defrauded investors. The latest disciplinary step continues a complex case that has been developing over several years.
The BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) announced it has issued a six-month licence suspension for Afsaneh Zarshenas, also known as Afsi Dashti, after she failed to provide information requested by investigators examining her alleged role in a possible investment scheme.
Zarshenas’ licence is already suspended under a 2025 consent order because she has not paid a required $50,000 disciplinary penalty. The new six-month suspension will begin immediately after that current suspension ends, and she must also pay $9,235.28 in enforcement expenses within 60 days. Zarshenas has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Financial Services Tribunal.
Ties to unregistered mortgage broker
Zarshenas was one of 23 people named in disciplinary proceedings connected to Jay Kanth Chaudhary, who became the subject of a BCFSA investigation in 2019. Chaudhary is accused of acting as an unregistered mortgage broker and processing about $500 million in loans over a decade.
BCFSA says some real estate licence holders who worked with Chaudhary allegedly referred clients to his services or used his services on mortgage applications, in some cases misrepresenting income and savings information.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans
The investigation into Zarshenas grew from five public complaints alleging that members of the public loaned money to her. Complainants told BCFSA they believed their funds would be used to help others buy real estate and that they would receive interest payments. The amounts loaned varied and, according to BCFSA documents, reached into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A slow response to investigation
BCFSA sent Zarshenas an investigatory letter on April 4, 2025, requesting a detailed statement and extensive documentation: investor names and contact details, copies of financial contracts and promissory notes, all communications with investors, real estate deal files, financial statements, a full accounting of how investor funds were used, and evidence that she had promptly notified the superintendent of a March 2025 bankruptcy filing.
She was given until April 18, 2025 to respond, but did not meet that deadline. On May 14, 2025, Zarshenas responded through legal counsel, providing a statement and some documents. Her statement addressed four individuals who had filed civil claims, characterizing the funds as personal loans and summarizing her financial difficulties and bankruptcy.
BCFSA replied the same day, deeming the response insufficient and noting she remained in breach of obligations under the Real Estate Services Act and Real Estate Services Rules.
At the hearing
During sanctions hearings in September and November 2025, senior hearing officer Andrew Pendray recognized that Zarshenas’ cooperation was delayed and incomplete, but not entirely absent. “Ms. Zarshenas did not fully comply with the investigatory requests from BCFSA, and at times took months to respond at all,” he wrote in his decision released in April.
Pendray acknowledged that she did make some efforts over time to provide the requested information, noting this as an indication that she is “not ungovernable.” Zarshenas said she believed a miscommunication occurred: she expected her bankruptcy trustee to forward the necessary documents to BCFSA and said she lost access to her bank accounts after entering bankruptcy.
Pendray’s decision also highlighted the seriousness of potential disciplinary outcomes. Licence cancellation is the most severe available sanction and, while it permits later re-entry into the industry, any applicant must then show they are of good character and suitable for licensing given the conduct that led to cancellation.
BCFSA emphasized that the recent penalty relates solely to Zarshenas’ failure to cooperate with investigators. The underlying allegations of investment fraud remain unproven and the investigation is ongoing.