Customers of a B.C. foreign currency exchange have filed lawsuits and complaints claiming they are owed tens of thousands of dollars by the business that specializes in transfers between Canada and Iran.
Coquitlam RCMP say they are investigating allegations made by clients of VanEx Currency Exchange.
Eight people have filed small claims lawsuits against the business in recent months, and clients who claim they are owed much larger amounts of money put their concerns to the head of the company in a meeting last week.
VanEx president Pouria Emadi told CBC News the company is cooperating with RCMP and said plans are underway to pay back all outstanding amounts by July — pointing to a dispute between the company’s founders and unrest in Iran as factors contributing to “operational challenges.”
But customer Sharereh Momeni says the situation has left her feeling helpless — worried she has lost the $7,600 she earned working for three months at a campground in Clearwater, B.C., to pay back money she borrowed in Tehran so she could come to Canada in the first place.
“I was so sad,” said Momeni, who sued VanEx in small claims court in December.
“I lived and worked too hard to save money and just pay back my loan to my hometown. And I trust this company, and the company is legally registered in Canada. And now I face a problem. I go to the police station, I go to the bank, I go everywhere and they don’t answer me.”
VanEx has not responded to Momeni’s claim.
‘Shotgun sale’
The current dispute follows a bitter B.C. Supreme Court battle between the two men who started VanEx in 2019 to facilitate money transfers between Iran and Canada — a process complicated by U.S. sanctions prohibiting Iran from directly accessing Western financial messaging services.
Unhappy customers say they have also reached out to the province’s financial services watchdog, which told CBC News the complaints would be subject to a law enacted in 2023 specifically to regulate B.C.’s money services industry — if it was in force.
Instead, more than two years after B.C.’s then-minister of finance heralded legislation appointing an overseer to “monitor the local industry and keep bad actors out,” the government says it’s still working on the details of the regulatory framework.
According to court documents, VanEx grew from just one employee to 14 over five years, earning revenues of more than $1.7 million in 2023.
But by 2024, Emadi claimed in an application to the court that differences between himself and his co-founder had left the company “deadlocked, paralyzed and unable to function.”
He ultimately obtained a court order for a so-called “shotgun” sale — a mechanism designed to force one partner to sell to another at a fair price.
In November 2025, after a prolonged fight over a purchase offer, Emadi obtained an order rescinding his co-founder’s share certificates and removing the other man’s name from the company’s securities register.
But while the 18-month-long “stalemate” between the two former partners played out in court, debts allegedly mounted on the outside.
‘VanEx continues to operate’
In his small claims lawsuit, Masoud Ghorbani claims he transferred the equivalent of $21,009 Canadian from Iran in early November, but has only received $6,009 to date — leaving a debt of $15,000 unpaid.
“I visited the Coquitlam branch several times to request an explanation. During these visits, I observed numerous other customers experiencing the same issue,” Ghorbani says in his statement of claim.
In court documents, Ghorbani claims Emadi told him VanEx “does not have money and claimed the business has suffered approximately $700,000 CAD in losses.”
“Despite this admission and their inability to pay multiple customers, VanEx continues to operate, accept new deposits and post daily exchange rates on Telegram,” the statement of claim continues.
In a response filed to Ghorbani’s claim, VanEx says B.C. is the wrong jurisdiction for the lawsuit because “the contract for services was entered into with the Iranian company in Iran, not with VanEx currency exchange, a Canadian Corporation.”
Ghorbani — who has served as a point of contact for the other claimants — moved from Iran to Canada in 2020. The 39-year-old Burnaby-based network security engineer says his previous dealings with VanEx were positive.
He told CBC News he only dealt with people in Canada. Ghorbani said he and the other people he has spoken to don’t care “what’s going on in the background” of the business — they just want their money.
‘Promises that were not fulfilled’
Like Ghorbani, Pouya Taatizadeh said he doesn’t care who is running the company.
A hardware engineer for Meta, Taatizadeh — a Canadian citizen — splits his time between San Francisco, Calif., and Vancouver, where his parents live.
He says VanEx still owes him more than $67,000 US, the shortfall on a transaction intended to move money from Tehran into his father’s bank account in Canada.
Taatizadeh provided CBC News with a string of emails between himself and VanEx, including one apologizing for “any inconvenience” and one in which Emadi says he is “truly sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience with us.”
“We dealt with a business. We were given some promises and that promise has not been fulfilled,” Taatizadeh says.
“That’s all we care about. We are not after people.… All that is happening is that we were given promises that were not fulfilled, and we have every right to pursue.”
‘VanEx has already begun repaying’
The most recent claim against the company demands repayment of an alleged $35,000 loan made in October; it was filed in North Vancouver provincial court on Monday. VanEx has yet to respond.
In responses to five of the other lawsuits, VanEx says claims should be made in Iran, not British Columbia.
In one, the company insists a debt of more than $13,000 was a “friend and family loan” — not a foreign exchange transaction. The same response contains a proposed repayment schedule starting in September 2026.
“Due to VanEx’s current financial situation, VanEx is not able to repay immediately, so proposes the payment schedule set out below,” the response says.
Emadi responded to questions from CBC News about the complaints via email. He would not share the number of customers involved or the total amount of money owed — citing confidentiality.
“VanEx is taking steps to stabilize its operations after this lengthy [B.C. Supreme Court] dispute and is gradually repaying outstanding amounts to customers,” Emadi wrote.
He pointed to a recent court decision citing his former partner’s failure to provide access to VanEx’s accounting software, which he said “complicated” operations.
“VanEx has already begun repaying the outstanding amounts owed to customers,” Emadi wrote.
“It held a meeting with its customers on Friday, 16 January 2026 at which it advised them that the second round of repayments will be made in February 2026, with the final repayments being made in July 2026.”
Lack of action criticized
Ghorbani was critical of what he sees as a lack of action from the B.C. Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), the Crown agency responsible for the supervision and regulation of the financial service sector.
The BCFSA told CBC News it “has received inquiries and other information about VanEx and we are reviewing them with regard to our current jurisdiction and mandate.”
“Once in force, complaints of this nature would be subject to legislation under the Money Services Business Act (MSBA),” a regulator spokesperson said.
“While the MSBA was passed in 2023, it is not yet in force.”
The province introduced the MSBA following recommendations from a provincial commission on money laundering calling for greater scrutiny of B.C.’s burgeoning money services industry.
But the Ministry of Finance says work to create the new regulatory framework “is still ongoing.”
“The Ministry of Finance has been leading the development of the new Money Services Businesses Act and working closely with the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) on the details,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
“This is new for B.C., and we want to make sure we do it right.”
The Finance Ministry said individuals seeking recovery of losses can sue, report to law enforcement or submit information to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
But while FINTRAC regulates currency exchanges like VanEx, the Ministry of Finance statement noted that the body “does not have the authority to deal with financial disputes.”
“I think their advice basically pushes everything onto victims,” Ghorbani said after reading the statement.
“The reality is that victims are left alone while the government process moves slowly — that’s what I believe.”
