Alina Victorovna Nikolaeva

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

Alina V. Nikolaeva admitted professional misconduct for using her firm's trust account between 2014 and 2019 to receive and disburse $466,537.00 USD without providing substantial legal services or making reasonable inquiries about the transactions, and for failing to properly identify and verify her client Y (a Russia-based non-face-to-face financial transaction). She entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement, approved August 31, 2022, agreeing to a two-week suspension. No dishonesty or fraud was found, and no clients were harmed.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Mitigating factors:

• No prior professional conduct record
• Re-evaluated and changed office procedures for client identification and verification
• Remorseful; acknowledged and apologized for misconduct
• Reviewed Rules on client identification, verification, and trust accounting; watched Anti-Money Laundering webinar; studied Trust Accounting Handbook
• No fraud or illegal conduct involved and no clients harmed