Biplab Kumar Poddar

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

The Respondent, a partner and COLP at an immigration-focussed firm, was found to have accepted instructions on a high-value international financial transaction (purportedly involving an $80m instrument), accepting £122,160.87 into client account and paying out £112,000 to third parties without adequate customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring, or any underlying legal work. He facilitated a transaction bearing the hallmarks of being dubious and used his client account as a banking facility in both the international matter and a conveyancing matter (paying £30,007.45 to a third-party company). The Tribunal found breaches of Principles 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8, Outcome 7.5, and Rule 14.5 of the Accounts Rules across all four allegations, proved beyond reasonable doubt. Dishonesty was expressly not alleged; the Tribunal found lack of integrity. Culpability was assessed as high and potential harm as very high. The Tribunal declined to strike off but imposed an indefinite suspension and ordered costs of £26,000. The Respondent's appeal was dismissed by Lang J on 20 October 2021.|response>{

Duties found breached:

• No improper communication with the court
• Honesty
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Firm governance, systems and compliance

Aggravating factors:

• Actions were deliberate and calculated in pursuit of personal gain
• Wilful disregard of AML Regulations 2007 and firm's own AML policy
• Breach of obligation to protect the public
• No genuine insight and no open or frank admissions
• Respondent stated he would take the same course of action if circumstances presented again

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings and hitherto unblemished career of over 10 years
• Full cooperation with the SRA investigation
• No actual loss or harm caused and no client complaints
• Ceased accepting conveyancing and international transaction instructions
• Undertook further training in Accounts Rules and AML regulations
• Personal stress due to prolonged illness and work pressure at the material time