Double trouble for attorney accused of practicing misdeeds, fraud

A 47-year-old female attorney practicing in Bloemfontein is expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrates’s Court on 26 June to answer to serious criminal charges.
These charges range from fraud, money laundering, theft, and contravention of the Attorneys Act. The court appearance comes after the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit in Bloemfontein served her with summons on 11 June.
W/O Fikiswa Matoti, provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, said the attorney’s appearance was the culmination of the Hawks’ in-depth probing, uncovering transgressions which include misconduct regarding the profession. She said the investigation entailed alleged fraud pertaining a complainant’s estate during the period of January 2015 to July 2017.
“The suspect was entrusted with the complainant’s estate, which she received in the form of cash of about R6 million. This amount was supposed to be held in a trust account on behalf of the complainant, but it was kept in the suspect’s personal account. This resulted in the complainant losing about R3,4 million,” said Matoti.
She said further investigation also discovered that the fraud-accused was practicing without a Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC) which is binding for all attorneys in the profession.
The Legal Practice Council (LPC) issues a Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC) annual to practitioners and is a mandatory license for legal practitioners in South Africa who handle client funds. The document is a guarantee that the practitioner is authorised to manage trust accounts and protects the public from potential losses due to theft or misappropriation of these funds. It also ensures practitioners can handle client funds and property responsibly.
The suspect faces the prospect of being struck off the roll by the LPC, effectively preventing her from practicing law. If convicted, she will add to the growing list of legal practitioners who have been revealed to have broken the law, and defrauded clients who enlisted their services to handle their estate.