Prince Fomba Goba & Waqas Hassan & Syed Rafaqat Hussain & Bright Arrey Arrey-Mbi

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

Two solicitors at PG Solicitors (trading as Edward Marshall), R1 Prince Fomba Goba (sole equity partner, COLP and COFA) and R2 Waqas Hassan (RFL and salaried partner), were found to have permitted a client account shortage of £472,320, made 14 unauthorised payments totalling £172,320 from client account to an account controlled by Yawar Ali Shah (a disbarred, convicted fraudster), personally received funds mixed with client money, and provided forged bank statements and misleading information to the SRA. The Tribunal found all allegations including dishonesty proved (applying the Ivey test) and struck both off the Roll, ordering them to pay costs of £54,905 jointly and severally. Allegations against R3 (Syed Rafaqat Hussain), who had left the firm in 2018, and R4 (Bright Arrey-Mbi), found to be a 'paper partner' with no real managerial authority under a sham partnership agreement, were dismissed with no order as to costs.

Duties found breached:

• Advise objectively, not a mere conduit
• Firm governance, systems and compliance
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was dishonest and involved use of forged documents to mislead the regulator
• Not a fleeting or momentary lapse but repeated misconduct over a lengthy period
• Failure to engage with the proceedings (R1 and R2 did not attend or serve an Answer)