Chrystine A. Bernard

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

The Attorney, retained to have carriage of sale of the complainant's home ($9,650,000), failed to pay over the balance of $507,656.06 of the sale proceeds to the vendor. The panel found beyond reasonable doubt that she failed to account, converted the funds, breached trust and acted dishonestly. The panel stated it would have struck her off the Roll but that this sanction had already been imposed; instead it ordered restitution of $457,656.06 with 6% interest, interest on the $50,000 partial repayment, and costs of $75,000 to the GLC and $50,000 to the Complainant.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Substantial sum of client money converted and withheld over many months
• Repeated broken promises to pay ('next week')
• Failure to comply with the panel's disclosure and inspection orders
• Conduct warranting striking off the Roll

Mitigating factors:

• Made a partial payment of $50,000 on account after hearing commenced
• Never denied that the sum was owed

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=125000"]