Criminal Breach of Trust

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PRESS RELEASE

To: The News Editor
From: jcreser@i4free.co.nz
CC: Persons named in article.
Date: 11/17/04
Re: Johnston Lawrence & Co

SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE TO INVESTIGATE LAW SOCIETY.

The Serious Fraud office has been asked to investigate the New Zealand Law Society after a complaint was laid about the administration of a solicitor’s trust account.
The Wellington District Law Society received a complaint last year about the administration of a family trust account by the Wellington law firm of Johnston Lawrence.
Over the last two years Mr Roger Chapman of Johnston Lawrence has refused to provide accounts or explain the deduction of over $100,000 of personal expenses from the trust fund.
A complaint was referred to the Law Society and rejected and now the SFO is now being asked to investigate because it is claimed that the society’s failure to follow its own complaint procedure clearly establishes this matter as being in the public interest
The complainant, a Wellington beneficiary said today that; “The failure of the society to abide by its own rules & statutory requirements to ensure solicitors trust funds are transparent & managed honestly, has enabled the trustees to avoid charges of false pretences and virtually clean out the income account; the apparent statutory safeguards appear to be little more than window-dressing, given that clearly defined procedural steps have not been observed.”

posted by Beef-Hooked @ 9:57 PM