Accountant hired by Ramal to confirm accuracy of campaign finances fined by CPA Ontario

The Khalil Ramal election spending scandal reveals his auditor was not licenced and has faced discipline for involvement. CTV London's Daryl Newcombe reports.

Salah Hassan’s failure to cooperate with an investigation by Chartered Professional Accountants (CPAs) of Ontario has resulted in fines and penalties totaling $13,500 from the profession’s disciplinary committee.

Hassan provided a written auditor’s report confirming the 2022 campaign finances of former mayoral candidate Khalil Ramal.

Every candidate who receives contributions or incurs expenses in excess of $10,000 must attach an auditor’s report to their financial filing.

In August 2023, an anonymous complaint to CPA Ontario, a professional regulatory body, alleged Hassan’s work confirming the accuracy of Ramal’s campaign finances “did not meet the standards of the profession”.

It cited a story from August 2, 2023 that appeared on CTV News about a meeting of London’s Compliance Audit Committee.

The news story referred to the unsigned auditor’s report included in the campaign’s financial filing.

The unsigned document read:

“Hi, I am Salah Hassan a Chartered Professional Accountant Licensed by Professional Accountants of Canada, license number 2086643. According to the information provided by Mr. Khalil Ramal, the Mayoral candidate for the City of London, Ontario, for the year 2022 election, after examining the bank statement, donation expenses and Form 4, it appears to me that all the information are correctly entered in the Financial Statement - Auditor’s Report candidate - Form 4n.

Best regards, Salah Hassan, CPA."

In September 2024, a ruling by the CPA Discipline Committee determined Hassan committed professional misconduct by not responding to multiple emails and telephone messages from its investigator.

“The nature of the misconduct, being the Member’s complete failure to respond to the inquiries of Standards Enforcement, raised concerns about public confidence in the profession’s ability to govern its own members,” the ruling reads.

He was fined $5,000 for failing to cooperate with a regulatory process plus he was required to pay $8,500 in fees for the hearing.

Eventually Hassan contacted CPA Ontario and blamed his failure to respond on health issues, an ill spouse, travel, and a misinterpretation:

“I was in the hospital with my wife and I was so busy with her during the month of September and October and I travelled to Egypt on November 1 for emergency family issues and I returned back on December 26, 2023. I did not have my Canada phone number with me. Please note that I did not violate any rules or regulations in my life or caused any harm to any human being or animals on earth.”

The ruling by CPA Ontario states Hassan “… blamed CPA Ontario for the harm to his reputation, reflected a completed absence of insight or remorse.”

Subsequently, a Compliance Audit of Ramal’s campaign finances by William Molson CPA in April found a number of apparent violations of the Municipal Elections Act including not filing the names/addresses of donors who gave over $100, exceeding the candidate contribution limit ($25,000) by $11,916.27, and using an unlicensed accountant to confirm the accuracy of the document submitted to the city clerk.

Molson wrote, “Hassan did not hold a license at March 31, 2022 or March 31, 2023.”

The findings of the Compliance Audit are being forwarded to a prosecutor for possible legal action against Ramal.

Hassan’s LinkedIn page lists his most recent position as Director of Finance for a business called EK Tech Software Solution.

A company by that same name is based in Houston, Texas.

However, there is a similarly named company called EK Tech Solutions on Waterloo Street in London.

When CTV News called the telephone number included on EK Tech Solutions’ website— Khalil Ramal answered.

After being asked why Hassan described himself as Director of Finance for the company Ramal replied, “Yes he did, he did it for a while, for three (or) four months. He did what he did, but he didn’t finish. I’m not sure what he did do, but he didn’t complete the work for us back then.”

A week prior, Ramal was asked by the Compliance Audit Committee what steps he took to verify Hassan was a licensed CPA.

At the time he responded, “The person who I went to was the auditor of a company called Global Financial. I met him there. I know him from there. He has, you know, was an auditor. And also I went to him after that three or four times to audit a few companies.”

CPA Ontario confirms Hassan is currently an “active member”, but would not disclose the status of the original investigation about whether his work for Ramal’s campaign met the standards of the profession.

Unable to find a phone number or email address for Hassan, CTV News accepted Ramal’s offer to try to provide Hassan with a reporter’s contact information.

There has yet to be a response from Hassan.