Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Lawyers' Client Compensation Fund Left Holding The Bag On $38.4M Bill Due To Closing Attorney's Escrow Funds Theft In Real Estate Deals

In Vancouver, British Columbia, The Vancouver Sun reports:
  • Both the B.C. Crown counsel who is prosecuting former Vancouver lawyer Martin Wirick for perpetrating the biggest fraud in Canadian legal history, and the lawyer who is defending him have recommended a seven-year prison sentence.

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  • According to an agreed statement of facts, the total value of the frauds captured by Wirick's guilty plea was $31.2 million, of which $26 million was actually lost. In all cases, victims were reimbursed by the B.C. Law Society's special compensation fund, which protects clients from lawyer fraud.(1)(2)

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  • Wirick fooled lenders and purchasers [in real estate sales] into thinking that prior mortgages had been repaid by filing forged discharge documents with the Land Titles Office. He also kept undischarged mortgages current so that the holders of those mortgages wouldn't get suspicious and discover that the property had been re-registered in somebody else's name. When he was pressed to provide evidence that he had discharged mortgages, he would use funds from an unrelated property sale or re-financing to pay them off.

For more, see 7-year term recommended for Wirick.

See also, CBC News: Former Vancouver lawyer pleads guilty to $42M mortgage fraud.

Go here, Go here, Go here, Go here, and Go here for other stories of trust account / escrow account theft of funds.

(1) According to the law society, the total payout on account of all Wirick and Gill-related frauds was $38.4 million. To pay the bill, the law society increased the annual assessment for its 10,000 lawyer-members to $600 from $250. It also revamped property transaction procedures to avoid similar frauds, and restructured its insurance coverage to prevent such massive payouts in future.

(2) For those in Canada, if a Canadian attorney, in the course of representing you, screws you out of money or property through dishonest conduct, click on your province on the Canada Client Protection Funds Map to contact the appropriate Law Society Client Compensation Fund about filing a claim to seek some reimbursement for your losses.

For those screwed out of money or property through dishonest conduct by a lawyer in the United States, see:

posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 4:05 AM