A non-solicitor involved in the improper transfer of tens of millions of pounds from the bank account of Axiom Ince has been barred from working in the profession. Another former staffer has been banned for doctoring bank statements and misleading the Solicitors Regulation Authority when the regulator was investigating the doomed accumulator firm.
Section 43 orders imposed on Muhammad Ali and Jayesh Anjaria were announced by the SRA this morning.
Ali, whose last known address was in High Wycombe, ‘caused or allowed payments totalling £54,500,000 to be improperly made from the bank account of his employer (Axiom Ince Ltd) when he knew or ought to have known that those transfers were improper. In addition, in the same period he caused or allowed that money to be misused or be misappropriated.’ The payments were made between 5 May 2021 and 27 July 2023.
Also, on 16 June 2023, Ali allowed ‘a third party to believe something was true when he knew it was not or had no reason to believe it was’.
Ali’s conduct was ‘serious’, the SRA’s decision notice states. ‘For a period of about 26 months, he arranged the improper transfer of £54,500,000 of client money in breach of Rule 5.1 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2011. He caused or allowed some or all of that money to be misused or misappropriated.’
Ali was ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA’s costs of £600.
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