Zulkifli Bin Mohd Amin

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

In OS 219, the High Court found Zulkifli guilty of 211 charges relating to misappropriation of over $11m of clients' monies and, finding him patently dishonest, struck him off the roll. Sadique, an equity partner, was found guilty of grossly improper conduct for gross dereliction of duty in failing to supervise the client account and put in place any checking mechanism, thereby facilitating the misappropriation; despite no dishonesty on his part, this exceptional case warranted striking him off the roll. Anand, a salaried partner, was acquitted of all charges as supervisory responsibility for the client account was a non-delegable duty of the equity partners. Costs were ordered against Zulkifli and Sadique; no order as to costs for Anand. Procedural breaches by the Law Society of s87(1A) and s87(4) of the Act did not invalidate proceedings.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Exceptional financial loss exceeding $11m to more than 80 clients
• Sadique's cavalier attitude and complete abdication of supervisory responsibility to one partner
• No checks made at any time during the period of misappropriations
• Loss could not be fully compensated (about $10m still owed)

Mitigating factors:

• Sadique had a good record prior to the incident
• Firm paid approximately $1,034,918.60 to clients after Zulkifli absconded