Axiom Ince: SFO investigation
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has banned two former employees of Axiom Ince from working in the profession in future without its permission.
The orders under section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974 – which are used to control the employment of non-solicitors involved in misconduct – were made nearly three weeks ago but their publication was delayed at the request of the Serious Fraud Office, which is investigating what happened at Axiom Ince.
According to the SRA notice, between 5 May 2021 and 27 July 2023, Muhammed Ali “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 – whose last known address was in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire – “allowed a third party to believe something was true when he knew it was not or had no honest reason to believe it was”.
The conduct of Jayesh Anjaria, whose last known address was Edgware, Greater London, took placed between 1 and 4 August 2023 during the course of the SRA’s forensic investigation of Axiom Ince.
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”.
Last month, responding to the suggestion that Axiom Ince cases could reach the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in mid-2025, SRA chief executive Paul Philip said it had agreed to pause regulatory action while the Serious Fraud Office carries out its investigation.
The orders come at the end of a bruising week for the SRA, after a report commissioned by the Legal Services Board found that the regulator “did not take all the steps it could or should have taken” ahead of the collapse of Axiom Ince. As a result, the board is to take enforcement action against the SRA.
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