Axiom Ince: Misconduct took place during SRA investigation
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has banned a third former employee of Axiom Ince from working in the profession in future without its permission due to “serious” misconduct.
The order under section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974 – which are used to control the employment of non-solicitors involved in misconduct – follows two published last month.
There was a significant delay in this week’s publication – the decision was made on 26 April.
It said that, between 1 and 4 August 2023, during the course of the SRA’s forensic investigation, Rupesh Karawadra “failed to take action about, including report to us, suspicious activity relating to the activity of sharing bank statements from one party to another”.
It explained that this was “serious” because, while the SRA was investigating his firm, “he agreed to forward by email bank statements belonging to A to B and later return them to A in circumstances that were suspicious and he failed to take appropriate action alerting others to that activity.
“He transmitted unaltered/untampered statements and then transmitted them back when they were altered/tampered with.”
As a result, the SRA found that Mr Karawadra was “partly involved in the systematic falsification of banking documents”. He was also ordered to pay costs of £600.
One of the other section 43 orders, concerning Jayesh Anjaria, also concerned conduct during the SRA’s investigation.
He “altered bank statements of Barclays bank such that they contained false and misleading information when he knew, suspected or intended that the SRA and others who might read the bank statements that they would be misled”.
The other order, concerning Muhammed Ali, said that between 5 May 2021 and 27 July 2023, he “caused or allowed” payments totalling £54.5m to be improperly made from Axiom Ince’s bank account “when he knew or ought to have known that those transfers were improper”.
Further, in the same period, “he caused or allowed that money to be misused or be misappropriated”.
Also, on 16 June 2023, Mr Ali “allowed a third party to believe something was true when he knew it was not or had no honest reason to believe it was”.
