Zulkifli Bin Mohd Amin

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

The Law Society brought show-cause proceedings against three partners of M/s Sadique Marican & Z M Amin following misappropriation of over $11m of clients' monies. Zulkifli, the managing partner, was found guilty of 211 charges of breaching the Solicitors' Accounts Rules and was patently dishonest in embezzling around $11m; he was struck off. Sadique, an equity partner, was found guilty of grossly improper conduct for gross dereliction of his supervisory duty as co-signatory which facilitated the fraud; although no dishonesty was found on his part, the court regarded this as an exceptional case warranting striking off due to the massive loss caused. Anand, merely a salaried partner, was acquitted of all charges as supervisory responsibility was non-delegable to equity partners. Costs were ordered in favour of the Law Society against Zulkifli and Sadique, with no order as to costs for Anand.

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports

Aggravating factors:

• Exceptional financial loss of over $11m to more than 80 clients
• Sadique's complete abdication of supervisory responsibility with no system of periodic checks
• Reporting to authorities came too late to enable any remedial action

Mitigating factors:

• Sadique had a good prior record
• Firm repaid around $1,034,918.60 to clients after Zulkifli absconded