TORONTO, ON – The Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario has suspended a member for six months after a discipline panel found he submitted a falsified medical note to the organization to obtain a refund and advertised public accounting services without the required licence. In a decision released on May 13, 2025, cited as Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario v Maru, 2025 ONCPA 11 (CanLII), the discipline committee ordered Jay D. Maru to pay a $15,000 fine and $10,000 in costs for his actions, which were deemed to be planned, deceptive, and a serious breach of professional ethics.
The case against Mr. Maru involved two distinct allegations of professional misconduct. The first centred on his attempt to secure a refund for an examination fee by dishonest means, while the second involved misrepresenting his qualifications to the public. Mr. Maru, who was 33 years old and residing in Mumbai, India at the time of the hearing, had a complex history that spanned multiple jurisdictions before these issues arose. He obtained a United States CPA designation in 2021, having falsely listed a Delaware address on his application, and later established accounting businesses in both India and Delaware.
Mr. Maru’s troubles in Ontario began shortly after he was admitted to membership with CPA Ontario in June 2023 through a Mutual Recognition Agreement. Having moved to Brampton, Ontario with the goal of establishing a Canadian practice, he incorporated “Prudence Advisors Inc. Public Accountants” and applied for a Public Accounting Licence, or PAL. Obtaining this licence required him to complete the CPA Reciprocity Exam (CPARE), for which he paid a fee of $1,469.
Just a month later, in July 2023, Mr. Maru sought to withdraw from the exam and requested a full refund. CPA Ontario initially informed him that he was only eligible for a deferral. Mr. Maru responded with a heated email on August 13, 2023, accusing the organization of “greediness to make only MONY” and threatening to escalate the matter to “higher authorities and all professional media with legal assistance.” In response, CPA Ontario advised him that a refund could be granted if he provided a valid medical note explaining his inability to complete the course.
On August 29, 2023, Mr. Maru submitted a note, seemingly from North York General Hospital and signed by a “Dr. NJ,” which stated he had been ill since late July and needed to be excused from work and exams for at least six months. However, staff in CPA Ontario’s Education department grew suspicious after noticing that information on a stamp on the note, including his date of birth and address, did not match Mr. Maru’s profile. A subsequent phone call to the clinic confirmed their suspicions: there was no record of Mr. Maru ever being a patient there. He later admitted to an investigator that he had downloaded the medical note template from the internet and used a PDF editor to insert his name and falsify the details, explaining that he needed the refund money to cover his rent.
Concurrent with the falsified note incident, Mr. Maru was also found to be advertising services he was not licensed to provide. From June 2023 until April 2024, the website for his U.S. based firm, Prudence Advisors USA, listed an Ontario office location. It advertised that Mr. Maru engaged in performing financial statement audits in accordance with Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Auditing Standards, a service that requires a PAL in Ontario. Mr. Maru never held a PAL. His Canadian company, Prudence Canada, was also not registered as a firm with CPA Ontario. When questioned, he claimed the website’s content was a “marketing technique” to build his Canadian business and that he mistakenly believed through friends that he could provide some services without firm registration.
After CPA Ontario’s Registrar filed a complaint in January 2024, Mr. Maru returned to India the following month and dissolved his Canadian corporation.
The discipline hearing was held virtually on April 4 and 7, 2025. Mr. Maru failed to attend the first day. On the second day, he sent an email explaining his mother had been hospitalized and consented to the hearing proceeding in his absence. Despite his absence, he had previously cooperated with the investigation and signed an Agreed Statement of Facts, where he admitted his conduct breached the profession’s rules and constituted professional misconduct.
The discipline panel found Mr. Maru’s actions were clear breaches of the CPA Code of Professional Conduct, specifically Rule 201.1, which requires members to maintain the good reputation of the profession, and Rule 101.1, which mandates compliance with all CPA Ontario regulations. The panel described his creation of the false medical note as dishonest and a violation of the trust placed in CPAs. His advertising of unlicensed services was seen as an attempt to mislead the public.
In determining the penalty, the panel considered several aggravating factors, including the planned and dishonest nature of his conduct across two separate matters. The panel also noted other instances of dishonesty, such as the false address provided to the U.S. CPA program and his failure to disclose his existing business on his application to CPA Ontario. These actions, the panel stated, represented “significant misconduct that deserved robust and meaningful sanctions.” While his cooperation and lack of a prior discipline record were noted as mitigating factors, the seriousness of the deception warranted a six month suspension, a $15,000 fine, and a requirement to complete an ethics course. The panel also ordered Mr. Maru to pay $10,000 towards the costs of the proceeding, reducing the $15,000 sought by the Professional Conduct Committee after finding the investigation costs were disproportionately high.
