The B.C. Securities Commission is seeking to ban a Vancouver-area woman from the province’s markets after she helped orchestrate a massive U.S. stock fraud scheme between 2010 and 2019.

Commission director of enforcement Doug Muir applied Feb. 5 for a sweeping ban from market activity against Xhiying Yvonne Gasarch, who had until April 20 to respond to the application. A hearing date has yet to be scheduled.

In September 2023, a jury found Gasarch liable for fraud via a civil complaint brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to a Massachusetts federal court in August 2021.

In June 2024 a judge ordered Gasarch to pay back more than US$2.5 million of illicit profits, plus a US$269,651 civil penalty. Gasarch was also banned from U.S. market activities.

U.S. judge said Gasarch likely to re-offend

In his application to the independent BCSC tribunal, Muir cites the serious nature of Gasarch’s misconduct and points to the public interest in banning Gasarch.

Muir notes how in the written judgment the judge told Gasarch: “Your involvement in the Scheme was egregious and repeated, lasting for a decade” and “There is a reasonable likelihood, ‘not mere possibility,’ that you will reoffend.”

Muir stated: “Given the increasing integration of capital markets across North America and the fact that Canadian investors may purchase securities offered in the United States, damage to the reputation of US securities markets may jeopardize Canadian investor confidence in the integrity of capital markets generally.”

Muir added that Gasarch had “shown flagrant disregard for securities laws” and she poses a “significant ongoing risk to investors and the capital markets of British Columbia.”

Muir is specifically seeking to ban Gasarch from trading in or purchasing any securities or derivatives, as well as from becoming or acting as a director, officer, promoter or consultant of any issuer or registrant.

Gasarch’s lawyer Greg DelBigio declined to comment on her behalf, as the matter is before the tribunal.

Gasarch codenamed ‘Wires’: SEC complaint

Gasarch is one of at least 21 individuals identified as B.C. residents who, alongside others and within several separate groups, conducted a series of fraudulent schemes through more than US$1 billion worth of stock sales, according to civil complaints from the SEC and/or criminal charges from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The jury found Gasarch worked directly for co-accomplice Fred Sharp, a West Vancouver resident and former lawyer turned offshore shell facilitator.

A judge deemed Sharp to be the scheme’s “mastermind” for his use of a vast network of offshore shell companies to obfuscate his clients’ ownership of penny stock company shares.

Gasarch’s primary role, according to the SEC, was to organize wire transfers of the proceeds from the illegal penny stock sales to so-called “Sharp Group” clients.

Among other claims made by the SEC, Gasarch, who also goes by Zhiying Chen, misrepresented disclosures to brokers and trading agents to hide beneficial owners of shares.

To communicate with clients about trades and payments Gasarch worked with an encrypted cell network wherein she was codenamed “Wires.”

While the BCSC banned Sharp in February 2023 after he was found liable for fraud in a civil case, Gasarch represents the first of Sharp’s co-accomplices to face a reciprocal ban hearing in B.C.

The application notes Gasarch was residing in Vancouver as of Jan. 8, 2026.

Property records show Gasarch previously lived in Richmond and sold a single-detached home after the SEC filed its complaint.

The application, published online by BCSC, also stated that as of Jan. 8, 2026, Gasarch was “listed as the director/officer of various BC companies.”

Meanwhile, Gasarch continues to contest the SEC seeking its payment.

DelBigio was in B.C. Supreme Court April 23 to face the SEC, which is in the process of forfeiting the assets of Gasarch and several others, including Sharp, who faces criminal charges of fraud in the U.S.

Those proceedings took place in camera to identify assets with a judge.

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