Burnaby accountant banned for faking CPA credentials, fined $25,000

A Burnaby woman has been permanently banned from the profession after B.C.'s accounting regulator found she spent years falsely presenting herself as a Chartered Professional Accountant.

The Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. hearing panel decision, dated Oct. 7, permanently cancelled the membership of Safiya Ibrahim Elshazly and ordered a $25,000 fine. The panel found she made fraudulent misrepresentations about her work experience and qualifications to employers, recruiters, clients and the regulator itself, and that she claimed a designation she did not hold.

The regulator said she repeatedly used false credentials in resumes, biographies and written, oral and electronic communications, and that she impersonated others and involved personal friends in the deceptions. In its online statement, the CPABC described her conduct as "reckless and flagrant dishonesty" and said she "took many intentional steps to avoid detection and cover up the truth."

Elshazly completed an associate degree in business administration at Douglas College and entered the CPABC's professional education program in 2019. A CPA designation requires a minimum of 30 months of paid, relevant, progressive work experience. In 2020 she accepted a job while still falsely claiming the designation, and from January 2022 she worked at the public accounting firm Johnsen Archer, where her email signature read "Safiya Elshazly, CPA | Senior Accountant." The firm dismissed her about a year later after the regulator told it she was only a student candidate.

As a former member, she may no longer use the designations "Chartered Professional Accountant," "Professional Accountant," or "CPA" or "PA," or imply that she holds them. Elshazly has not responded to the decision, and Published reports say it was unable to reach her for comment.