Solicitors turning blind eye to Money Laundering, and fraud. 26 March 2021 at 1:22PM in Deaths, Funerals & Probate 27 replies 2.9K views

Rosiebow

Hi, not sure what to do. But it seems like i have a dodgy Solicitor.. We are going though a dispute where the executors have stolen a few hundred thousand pounds from my relative while she had dementia. I got the LPA Stopped.  After seeing finally the Bank statements that the executors were hiding from us, as all equal on the WILL.  They have stolen alot of money. BUT 100% money Laundering involving over £90,000.00.  My solicitor does not want to comment on what it is, saying he will speak on the phone about it. Then on the phone when i say " This is money laundering "  He says " Sure, sure..."  ? But has done nothing to report it.  All he does is constantly put me under pressure to go to mediation , without all of the bank records which we need to see, so we can see how much money should be shared between us.  It has cost us so far £10,000.00 and we finally got him to submit the Land Mark Asset searches after asking for 15 months for them. He told us it would only cost us £5,000.00 plus 6 months to get this sorted.  Feeling really ripped off, plus he has given the over side permission to do things without our consent. Also when i have said do not give the other side this info. .A week later he sends it to them ?  Are all Solicitors the same ?.  We were promised justice after being put through so much, but even the people you go to for help want to take from you. It really feels that he is on there side, really important documents that i keep asking for, we dont get, we have so much evidence of fraud ect, but he just wants what the other side want...A quick mediation, without us getting the deal we deserve.   Feeling really let down.

naedanger

Did you appoint the solicitor and does he act on your behalf? Or does he act on behalf of the executor or someone else?

Marcon

Rosiebow said:

Hi, not sure what to do. But it seems like i have a dodgy Solicitor.. We are going though a dispute where the executors have stolen a few hundred thousand pounds from my relative while she had dementia. I got the LPA Stopped.  After seeing finally the Bank statements that the executors were hiding from us, as all equal on the WILL.  They have stolen alot of money. BUT 100% money Laundering involving over £90,000.00.  My solicitor does not want to comment on what it is, saying he will speak on the phone about it. Then on the phone when i say " This is money laundering "  He says " Sure, sure..."  ? But has done nothing to report it.  All he does is constantly put me under pressure to go to mediation , without all of the bank records which we need to see, so we can see how much money should be shared between us.  It has cost us so far £10,000.00 and we finally got him to submit the Land Mark Asset searches after asking for 15 months for them. He told us it would only cost us £5,000.00 plus 6 months to get this sorted.  Feeling really ripped off, plus he has given the over side permission to do things without our consent. Also when i have said do not give the other side this info. .A week later he sends it to them ?  Are all Solicitors the same ?.  We were promised justice after being put through so much, but even the people you go to for help want to take from you. It really feels that he is on there side, really important documents that i keep asking for, we dont get, we have so much evidence of fraud ect, but he just wants what the other side want...A quick mediation, without us getting the deal we deserve.   Feeling really let down.

Your post is very muddled and I can't really follow what's going on. Executors only become executors once someone has died, so they can't have stolen from your relative while she was still alive. An LPA ceases automatically on death, so not sure why you refer to 'having it stopped'?

How do you know that money has been laundered - do you know what money laundering is, because there's certainly no evidence of that in what you've posted.

You keep making references to 'we' without specifying to whom 'we' refers. The solicitor can't give the other side (?who are 'the other side') permission to do things without 'our' (?who is 'our') consent. 

74jax

Rosiebow said:

Hi, not sure what to do. But it seems like i have a dodgy Solicitor.. We are going though a dispute where the executors have stolen a few hundred thousand pounds from my relative while she had dementia. I got the LPA Stopped.  After seeing finally the Bank statements that the executors were hiding from us, as all equal on the WILL.  They have stolen alot of money. BUT 100% money Laundering involving over £90,000.00.  My solicitor does not want to comment on what it is, saying he will speak on the phone about it. Then on the phone when i say " This is money laundering "  He says " Sure, sure..."  ? But has done nothing to report it.  All he does is constantly put me under pressure to go to mediation , without all of the bank records which we need to see, so we can see how much money should be shared between us.  It has cost us so far £10,000.00 and we finally got him to submit the Land Mark Asset searches after asking for 15 months for them. He told us it would only cost us £5,000.00 plus 6 months to get this sorted.  Feeling really ripped off, plus he has given the over side permission to do things without our consent. Also when i have said do not give the other side this info. .A week later he sends it to them ?  Are all Solicitors the same ?.  We were promised justice after being put through so much, but even the people you go to for help want to take from you. It really feels that he is on there side, really important documents that i keep asking for, we dont get, we have so much evidence of fraud ect, but he just wants what the other side want...A quick mediation, without us getting the deal we deserve.   Feeling really let down.

Ok, I'm not sure I know what is going on, but is this right :
1.  A relative of yours has died.   The Executors to the Will also had POA for this person when they were alive.  Prior to death the people with POA stole a few hundred thousands from this person.  You contacted the courts and had the POA revoked and a dispute is ongoing over where the money has gone.  Is this right?
2.  As well as steeling hundreds of thousands, these people are laundering 90k of money - where/who is this money from, and how are they laundering it?

If the above is correct then:
Are you an Executor too? 
Are you a beneficiary to the Will? 
Are the Executor beneficiaries?  
Who has promised you justice and justice for what?
You say you have so much evidence of fraud, is that related to the money going missing through POA or something else.

I'm really sorry but I can't follow the situation, but if you can answer the above, we might all understand a little better to help?

elsien

If you believe money has been stolen and money is being laundered, have you gone to the police about it?
It would also help to explain what has made you believe that money is being laundered? It sounds possible that your solicitor disagrees but hasn't directly come out and said so, but pointing you at mediation instead would appear to indicate that as a possibility. 

Rosiebow

Sorry, under a lot of stress at the mo.  Family members tried to get my aunte to sign lasting power of atorney while she had dementia, i managed to get it stopped with the court of protection.  We are all in my auntes will, but the family members who was helping her with her finances, was also helping themselves to her money writing cheques out to them selves ect. I phoned the bank and they froze my auntes account because she failed security with them on the phone and also got upset and said that she had not wrote out those large cheques, ect...  When my aunte sadly died we got caveat on estate and its still on the estate been over 15 months now. Our solicitor was great at the beginning, but now not bothered..Since  .Which is shocking because we have money laundering on two accounts, the bank have told us this is money laundering and are waiting for our solicitor to get signed consent forms  from executors to allow the banks to investigate for us.?  Solicitor keeps saying we must go to mediation, but i keep telling him we need the searches back first to see what is in accounts. When i asked him what he thought of the accounts he said he will discuss it on the phone ? He seems to not want to admit it is now a criminal case ? Maybe we cant do mediation if it is ? Dont know. He seems to want to keep the estate small ( Money) so we will take smaller amount, and the other side cause they have hidden money will keep it all, may be give him a cut ? Who knows..Very wierd behaviour. I have heard so many bad stories about solicitors, they really seem to enjoy the power that they have. Spoken to the SRA and they want me to give them all the details, i have heard if solicitors hide fraud it is a criminal offence, because they need to let us know.  My gut instinct is just telling me something is off...

Marcon

Rosiebow said:

I have heard so many bad stories about solicitors, they really seem to enjoy the power that they have. Spoken to the SRA and they want me to give them all the details, 

Don't believe all you hear. 

Have you given the SRA 'all the details'?

BrassicWoman

Money Laundering would be, for example, "cleaning" drug money by running it through a fronted business (like a tanning salon or a corner shop etc)
Is that what you are suggesting has happened?

Rosiebow

Yes, they put it into their new business. The banks have seen the statements and said it is money laundering, there is no reason to of done what they have. They just didnt want the bank to know what they was doing. 

Marcon

Rosiebow said:

Yes, they put it into their new business. The banks have seen the statements and said it is money laundering, there is no reason to of done what they have. They just didnt want the bank to know what they was doing. 

Putting money from a known source into a new business isn't money laundering. It's the source of the funds which matters (and  the source is known - your aunt's account), not the destination.

BrassicWoman

So - looks like a share if the business is among the assets to be distributed? Unless they are claiming it was a gift.