Gregory George Dureault

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

Gregory G. Dureault, called to the BC bar in 1985, entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement approved February 28, 2025, admitting professional misconduct for permitting his firm's trust accounts (2016-2017) to receive and disburse large sums for entities and individuals without providing legal services, without making reasonable inquiries into the source of funds, and without proper client identification/verification. He also failed to inquire into suspicious circumstances while a director/shareholder of a major shareholder of a public company, and admitted he was duped and ought to have known he may have been facilitating crime, dishonesty or fraud (contrary to Code rules 3.2-7 and 3.2-8). No express finding of dishonesty against the lawyer was made. He agreed to a three-month suspension. No fine or costs were specified.

Duties found breached:

• Cooperate openly with regulators
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
• Handle inadvertently received material
• No improper use of client money
• Not misrepresent regulated status
• Report serious misconduct of others

Mitigating factors:

• No prior professional conduct record
• Made admissions and cooperated in a timely way to resolve by consent
• Remorseful and understood seriousness of misconduct
• Ceased operating trust accounts and undertook not to operate one in future
• Cooperated appropriately with RCMP investigation
• Held honest but mistaken belief funds could constitute Fiduciary Property