A solicitor has been fined £27,500 for failing to conduct ’adequate client due diligence’ more than seven years ago while handling a property transaction for international firm Kennedys Law LLP.
Dennis Ko, admitted in October 2002, was a manager at Kennedys from May 2014 to September 2017. He was the matter partner in relation to the sale of units in the Grosvenor Hotel, Bristol.
By way of an agreed outcome, Ko was found to have failed to conduct adequate client due diligence while working on the purchase and subsequent sale of units in the hotel. He was also found to have failed to conduct sufficient ongoing monitoring of the business relationship with his client; and caused, allowed or acted in transactions which bore the hallmarks of fraud. Between 23 May 2017 and 12 July 2017, Ko was also found to have authorised or allowed payments totalling £925,000 to be made to Sanjiv Varma, who instructed Ko, £10,000 to KD Law and £133,5000 to Casa Investments Ltd, ‘which bore the hallmarks of fraud’.
The firm stopped acting for Varma in February 2018. The matter was reported to the SRA in 2018 by another firm.
Read more
Fining Ko, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Ko had ‘admitted to numerous failings that continued over a number of months’.
It added: ‘The tribunal did not consider that the misconduct was so serious that there should be any interference with his ability to practise. The tribunal determined that a financial penalty was appropriate and proportionate to the seriousness of his misconduct.’
Ko was also ordered to pay £25,000 costs, as agreed by both parties.
