Francisco Xavier Rodriguez-Purcet

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

Francisco Xavier Rodriguez-Purcet, an unadmitted employee acting as Head of Marketing and Business Development at Tandem Law, faced two allegations. The Tribunal found allegation 1.1 proved beyond reasonable doubt, including dishonesty: he procured and received secret profits/kick-backs derived from Axiom Funds monies routed through a friend's company (LAL), breaching Principles 2 and 6. Applying the Ivey test, the Tribunal found his dishonesty was of the highest order. Allegation 1.2 (passing confidential client information to third parties for cold-calling re-mortgage services without client consent) was found proved as reckless, breaching Principles 2 and 6. Preliminary adjournment and abuse-of-process applications were refused and the hearing proceeded in his absence. As he was not on the Roll, the Tribunal imposed a Section 43 Order restricting his employment, considering no further financial penalty necessary, and ordered him to pay costs of £35,000 (reduced from the £46,123.38 claimed). The original order was later set aside on appeal and remitted for redetermination.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct motivated by financial gain for himself to the detriment of the Axiom Fund
• Actions were planned and he had direct control of the circumstances with others
• Proven dishonesty of the highest order
• Harm caused to the reputation of the profession and significant financial loss to the Fund (none of the Axiom monies repaid)