A prominent Vancouver art gallery that touts itself as Canada’s leading fine-art auction house is declining to speak about a former accountant who, according to his own admissions, embezzled over half a million dollars.
Robert Heffel, vice-president of Heffel Fine Art Auction House, declined to comment to BIV Friday when asked what transpired with former Heffel accountant Norbert Robin Ma.
According to a recently published, but undated, discipline notice from the Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. investigators alleged Ma breached the regulator's code of conduct, particularly the “misappropriation of approximately $506,687 from a former employer” between November 2021 and October 2023.
Online career directories list one Norbert Ma as having worked for the Heffel gallery during that time. RocketReach.com shows Norbert Ma as being a controller for Heffel between 2015 and 2023, after working as an accountant with Vancouver Coastal Health from 2012-15.
According to the notice, Ma conducted “numerous surreptitious electronic funds transfer payments that he authorized and transferred to two personal bank accounts that he owned to fund a gambling addiction.”
Ma was also found to be “manipulating corporate records of the former employer to conceal his misappropriation. Mr. Ma has not repaid the stolen funds.”
Ma, the notice stated, “has irrevocably admitted to all the allegations that CPABC has made against him,” and has undertaken not to apply for membership until 2030.
Ma’s membership was cancelled on Aug.1, 2024, as a result of his failure to pay fees and dues while a disciplinary proceeding is “currently ongoing.”
As such Ma cannot use or display certified accountant designations or imply, suggest or hold out that he is a Chartered Professional Accountant or Professional Accountant.
According to Heffel, the gallery moves tens of millions of dollars’ worth of fine art each year.
After being founded in 1978, Heffel Fine Art Auction House says it “became one of the foremost galleries in the country and established a reputation for handling the very best artworks by Canadian artists.”
The gallery also notes that in 2018 it was ranked among the top-ten auction houses in the world by the prestigious publication, Art + Auction.
BIV was unable to reach Ma for comment.
