Disciplinary hearing is ‘double punishment,’ accountant’s lawyer says

The lawyer for a Yellowknife accountant facing a disciplinary hearing argues allowing that hearing to take place would amount to “double punishment.”

Chartered Professional Accountants NWT/Nunavut – a regulatory body – decided in November 2025 to hold a disciplinary hearing into a complaint lodged by the Town of Norman Wells against EPR Yellowknife Accounting Professional Corporation and its president, Biswanath Chakrabarty.

Chakrabarty is asking the NWT Supreme Court to intervene and quash that decision.

His lawyer, Steven Cooper, argued in court on Wednesday that the subject of Norman Wells’ complaint – a report EPR completed on the town’s payroll and corporate credit card use between 2015 and 2018 – was already dealt with in a previous complaint.

Catherine Mallon, the town’s former administrative officer, had filed the prior complaint with CPA NWT/NU in April 2022. She alleged EPR failed to explain the report was a review rather than a forensic audit and failed to correct town officials who “misconstrued and misrepresented” the report as an audit.

That complaint was resolved through mediation and EPR issued a press release in November 2022, stating its report was not an audit and apologizing to Mallon.

Cooper argued the press release should be the final outcome. He said requiring Chakrabarty to go through a disciplinary hearing for a second complaint on the same issue would be unreasonable, unjust and unfair, and result in reputational harm to his client.

“He’s paid a penalty already,” Cooper said.

CPA NWT/NU lawyer Craig Boyer said comparing Norman Wells’ complaint to Mallon’s complaint was like comparing “apples to oranges.”

“There’s very different issues that have not been addressed,” he said.

Boyer said while Mallon was the subject of EPR’s review, the Town of Norman Wells was the client, although the review was commissioned by the NWT government.

In its complaint, the town said it believed the report was a forensic audit and only learned about it being a review from EPR’s press release, which devalued the report.

The town had relied on the report in a since-abandoned lawsuit against Mallon.

Unlike the potential outcome of a disciplinary hearing, Boyer said, the resolution of Mallon’s complaint against EPR and Chakrabarty did not result in any findings of fact, nor sanctions.

Boyer further argued that just requiring Chakrabarty to go through a disciplinary hearing is not undue hardship, and the hearing should be allowed to proceed.

“This application is an attempt to short-circuit the disciplinary process,” he said.

Justice Annie Piché said she hopes to deliver a decision on the case before the end of the year.

In a separate but related case in September, the NWT Supreme Court dismissed a $26.6-million lawsuit Chakrabarty and EPR filed against the Town of Norman Wells that alleged the town’s complaint to CPA NWT/NU was “malicious, unjustified, without merit” and caused reputational harm.

Justice Karin Taylor concluded EPR “should not be permitted to circumvent the CPA process by initiating a parallel lawsuit.”

Chakrabarty is the head of Range Lake Developments Ltd, which owns the building that Cabin Radio leases.