Muhammed Ali and Jayesh Anjaria slapped with section 43 orders
Two former members of staff at the now collapsed Axiom Ince have been barred from working in the legal profession, the solicitors’ regulator confirmed today.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which faced heavy criticism this week for its actions leading up to the firm’s collapse, has issued section 43 orders to Muhammed Ali and Jayesh Anjaria.
These orders prohibit both men, neither of whom is a solicitor, from working in law firms without the regulator’s explicit permission.
In a notice published on the SRA’s website, it states that between May 2021 and July 2023, Ali “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.”
It also states that Ali “caused or allowed that money to be misused or misappropriated” and “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 SRA described Ali’s conduct as “serious”, stating that 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.
A separate notice reveals that between 1 and 4 August 2023, during a forensic investigation conducted by the SRA, “Anjaria altered bank statements from Barclays Bank to include false and misleading information, knowing, suspecting, or intending that the SRA and others who might read the statements would be misled”.
The regulator said Anjaria’s conduct was deemed “serious” because he “repeatedly falsified bank statements to show false and misleading information about the account holder, namely that he had more money in his bank account than he actually had”.
The SRA said that this misconduct occurred while it was investigating the firm, of which the account holder was the sole shareholder.
Anjaria was also ordered to pay a proportion of the SRA’s costs of £600.
The SRA added that the publication of these orders was delayed due to a risk of compromising the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the matter. The SFO requested that the regulator hold back until the risk had passed.
Legal Cheek reported extensively last year on the Axiom Ince fiasco, in which the firm was shut down after millions went missing from the client account.
Earlier this week, the legal profession’s super-regulator, the Legal Services Board, released a critical report on the SRA’s handling of the Axiom Ince saga.
The report found that the SRA “did not act adequately, effectively and efficiently” and failed to “take all the steps it could or should have taken.” As a result, it concludes that “the SRA’s actions and omissions in this matter necessitate change in its procedures to mitigate the possibility of a similar situation arising again”.
