A B.C. lawyer has partially lost an appeal in a case where she was found to have committed professional misconduct for improperly handling millions of dollars in trust accounts for a Chinese client.
A B.C. lawyer found to have committed professional misconduct after improperly flowing more than US$10 million through her trust accounts for a Chinese client looking to purchase property in B.C. in 2015 has partially lost an appeal case brought forward by the Law Society of BC. Suspicious transactions improperly vetted by Florence Esther Louie Yen had resulted in two findings of professional misconduct from a society hearing panel in September, 2020.
Yen was suspended from her practice for three months. But Yen appealed the findings to a society review board, which found the hearing panel erred in one of its determinations of professional misconduct — that Yen had failed to record the source of funds for some transactions. Thereafter, the society appealed the review board’s decision to the B.C. Court of Appeal. On Dec. 17, the three-judge appeal panel ruled Yen had, in fact, broken law society rules; however, it did not amount to professional misconduct. Key to the appeal ruling was that the judges did not find Yen’s breaches were done in bad faith and the poor record keeping was an oversight. Furthermore, there was no evidence of actual harm arising from Yen’s breach of the rules as her client did not suffer any harm, and wire receipts had been preserved for the society’s investigation. In the original decision, there was no finding that actual money laundering or other actual dishonest or illegal conduct occurred, the hearing panel ruled. However, the panel noted the breaches originated from money laundering red flags that should have prompted inquiries from Yen. As such, the review board upheld the proven allegation that Yen did not make reasonable inquiries about the circumstances of numerous transactions that amounted to approximately US$10 million and $1.27 million being disbursed through her trust accounts via dozens of transactions between 2015 and 201
PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT LAWYER TRUST ACCOUNTS MONEY LAUNDERING APPEAL
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