Chilwin Chienhan Cheng

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

Chilwin C. Cheng, a BC securities lawyer called in 1998, entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement admitting professional misconduct. Between July and December 2018, he permitted his firm's trust account to be used to deposit two bank drafts totaling approximately $504,094.60 from clients who were subject to BC Securities Commission proceedings and freeze orders, and disbursed the funds to third parties without providing substantial legal services, without making reasonable inquiries into the source/nature of the funds, and without recording such inquiries. No dishonesty was found, and there was no evidence the conduct assisted any client fraud (fraud allegations against the clients were later withdrawn). He agreed to a two-month suspension commencing December 12, 2022. Mitigating factors included no prior record, remorse, long service to the profession, and remedial trust-compliance measures.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• No improper communication with the court
• No improper use of client money

Mitigating factors:

• No prior professional conduct record
• Long record of service to the profession including teaching, mentoring and volunteering in leadership roles
• Extraordinarily remorseful and understands the seriousness of the misconduct
• Implemented improvements to trust monitoring operations since 2020
• No loss caused to third parties and no evidence misconduct assisted any client fraud
• Did not charge fees for the trust transactions