May the record reflect that these two senior lawyers were cheats?
Mr Manjit Singh Kirpal Singh and Mr Sree Govind Menon have been disbarred by the Court of Three Judges following an elaborate scheme intended to keep a client's money.
In 2010, the two lawyers had won a case for their client, Bernadette Rankin, who wanted to sell a property on Joan Road so she could live off the proceeds of its sale after she had broken up with a Malaysian businessman.
"Ms Rankine netted S$6.9 million from the sale of the property. She received a S$5 million cheque from the lawyers’ firm and used another S$50,000 to pay her personal assistant. Mr Singh handed her a cheque worth S$1.8 million and the lawyers advised her to issue cheques of the same amount to their wives for safekeeping and future legal fees, which she did," reports Channel NewsAsia.
The problem? The lawyers refused to give back her money — until she filed a complaint with the Law Society.
She eventually withdrew her complaint but, unfortunately for the lawyers, the Law Society did not.
According to the CNA report: "The duo had embarked on an elaborate scheme to cheat Ms Rankine, while ensuring the payment could not be traced back to their firm’s account, argued the Law Society, represented by Mr P E Ashokan. Instead of directly transferring the S$1.8 million from the law firm’s account to that of his wife and Mr Menon’s wife, Mr Singh had used Ms Rankine as a conduit so that things would appear above-board, noted the Court of Three Judges."
The two lawyers had acted dishonourably and showed no remorse for reprehensible conduct, said the Law Society.
No objection.
Photo: Smuconlaw via Wikipedia
May the record reflect that these two senior lawyers were cheats?
Mr Manjit Singh Kirpal Singh and Mr Sree Govind Menon have been disbarred by the Court of Three Judges following an elaborate scheme intended to keep a client's money.
In 2010, the two lawyers had won a case for their client, Bernadette Rankin, who wanted to sell a property on Joan Road so she could live off the proceeds of its sale after she had broken up with a Malaysian businessman.
"Ms Rankine netted S$6.9 million from the sale of the property. She received a S$5 million cheque from the lawyers’ firm and used another S$50,000 to pay her personal assistant. Mr Singh handed her a cheque worth S$1.8 million and the lawyers advised her to issue cheques of the same amount to their wives for safekeeping and future legal fees, which she did," reports Channel NewsAsia.
The problem? The lawyers refused to give back her money — until she filed a complaint with the Law Society.
She eventually withdrew her complaint but, unfortunately for the lawyers, the Law Society did not.
According to the CNA report: "The duo had embarked on an elaborate scheme to cheat Ms Rankine, while ensuring the payment could not be traced back to their firm’s account, argued the Law Society, represented by Mr P E Ashokan. Instead of directly transferring the S$1.8 million from the law firm’s account to that of his wife and Mr Menon’s wife, Mr Singh had used Ms Rankine as a conduit so that things would appear above-board, noted the Court of Three Judges."
The two lawyers had acted dishonourably and showed no remorse for reprehensible conduct, said the Law Society.
No objection.
Photo: Smuconlaw via Wikipedia