adminMashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
THE High Court has ordered a law firm in Gweru to be placed under curatorship after the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) detected alleged fraudulent transactions amounting to $144,000.
The ruling by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi follows an urgent chamber application by the LSZ which sought an order to have Gonesi and Partners placed under curatorship for defrauding clients.
Justice Mathonsi also granted an order suspending Gonesi from practising as a lawyer for six weeks and ordered the LSZ to appoint its deputy executive secretary, Wilbert Pfungwadzashe Mandinde, as curator for six weeks.
Curatorship means that the law firm will cease operations and have someone from outside the organisation put in charge to manage its activities.
The judge also ordered the LSZ to immediately take control of Gonesi and Partners’ trust accounts and administer them.
Mandinde, in his founding affidavit, said the respondent committed acts of unprofessional conduct by entering into a consent order on behalf of ex-workers at Xi Yun Mining with their former employer without engaging them.
As a result, the law firm pocketed $86,000 which it purported was going towards the workers’ claims and refused to disburse the money.
The law firm also went to an extent of secretly accepting $86,000 as full and final settlement against a claim of $144,000 resulting in the miners suffering a $58,000 loss.
According to court papers, Gonesi and Partners also fraudulently inflated the legal fees from 10 percent to 15 percent.
The law firm also failed to provide detailed reports of its bank statement highlighting the funds received on behalf of the Xi Yun Mining ex-workers, the statement of account showing the fees charged and the schedule of disbursements.
“It has therefore become necessary that the applicants be given mandate to step in, take control and investigate the complaints without the respondents’ interference. I submit that in view of those allegations, it is imperative that this honourable court grant the order sought so as to protect the profession as well as members of the public,” said Mandinde.
LSZ is threatened with claims amounting to $3 million emanating from theft, fraud, forgery and dishonest practices from its members, with deregistered Bulawayo law firm Cheda and Partners having the highest claim at $1million.
The LSZ administers a fund aimed at compensating members of the public who would have incurred losses due to theft, fraud and other dishonest practices committed either by a registered legal practitioner or their employees.
A report by the legal practitioners regulating body has revealed that Cheda and Partners is the only law firm from Bulawayo out of the nine law firms that are set to cost the LSZ $2, 9 million in claims from its clients.
Seven of the offending law firms are from Harare while one, Chigayo and Partners, with a claim of $16,000, is based in Chiredzi.
In two years, 12 firms have been placed under curatorship.
Cheda and Partners was shut down in April this year after the LSZ detected alleged fraudulent transactions running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. The law firm’s demise first saw its three senior partners, Sindiso Mazibisa, Mlamuli Ncube and Nqobizitha Ndlovu surrendering their practising certificates.
They were later suspended by the LSZ pending fraud investigations, one of which was the alleged theft of $335,000, held in trust by Mazibisa.
Online Reporter