Habib-Ur-Rahmaan Maroof

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent, admitted to the Roll in 2000, was convicted in a German criminal court in October 2015 of seven counts of aiding and abetting tax evasion and one count of attempted tax evasion by acquiescence in connection with a VAT carousel fraud, with total tax loss exceeding 7.2 million euros. He also failed to respond to the SRA's requests for information including a s44B Notice between 2018 and 2019. He admitted all allegations including dishonesty. The matter was resolved by agreed outcome on the papers. The Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances and ordered the Respondent be struck off the Roll and pay costs of £1,000.

Duties found breached:

• Cooperate openly with regulators
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Serious criminal conviction in Germany for aiding and abetting tax evasion (VAT carousel fraud)
• Substantial tax loss totalling over 7.2 million euros
• Involvement in a substantial criminal organisation
• Failure to cooperate with the SRA's investigation

Mitigating factors:

• Self-reported the conduct to the SRA
• Made full admissions to the allegations
• Made a full confession in the German proceedings