SFO charged five men over collapse of law firm Axiom Ince
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged five men, including two solicitors, in December following the collapse of the law firm Axiom Ince.
Axion Ince went into administration in 2023 after an alleged improper use of over £60m of client money, which sent shock waves throughout the legal sector.
City PM had the full story of what happened to Axion Ince here.
The SFO’s investigation was opened 15 months ago, the first case opened by director Nick Ephgrave and is noted one of its fastest to result in criminal charges.
Five men were charged with offences including fraud, forgery and the destruction of documents, including chief executive and director Pragnesh Modhwadia, co-director Shyam Mistry and chief financial officer Muhammad Ali.
Modhwadia, Mistry and Ali are charged with two counts of fraud by abuse of position, as all three are alleged to have misused client funds and exposed thousands of the firm’s clients to losses.
Modhwadia and Mistry are also charged, alongside the firm’s chief technology officer Rupesh Karawadra and vice president of IT Jayesh Anjaria with conspiring to conceal, destroy or dispose of documents relevant to a Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigation into the firm.
All five are also charged with conspiring to mislead the legal regulator by using false documents.
In addition to intervening the firm last October, the legal regulator also suspended three directors, including Modhwadia.
Commenting on the news, Nick Ephgrave, SFO’s director said: “The collapse of Axiom Ince left thousands of clients exposed to significant losses and hundreds of people out of a job.”
“The SFO set out to identify and bring those responsible to justice, and today’s charging is a significant milestone in achieving that.”
“I pledged at the start of my tenure to speed up case progression at the SFO and with this investigation, opened only 15 months ago, we have conducted a thorough and targeted investigation in record time to bring these charges today,” he added.
While Jim Varley, partner at Devonshires acting for the administrators of Axiom Ince stated: “This will be very welcome news for anyone affected by the wide-ranging fallout from the Axiom Ince administration.”
“We will continue to work with the administrators to unravel the mess left behind and remain confident that we will recover monies owed for those clients left out of pocket,” he added.
Philip Barden, partner at Devonshires, who acts for the remaining Axiom directors added: “It’s important for people to understand that the remaining 12 Axiom directors are completely innocent and knew nothing about any misconduct or fraud that was happening at the firm.”
He added: “They spent six weeks working around the clock to mitigate the impact of the fraud on clients and staff, and through their efforts clients were rehoused and more than 1,100 jobs were saved.”
All five men appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 15 January for their first appearance to hear the charges that are being brought against them.
They are all now due to appear at Southwark Crown Court on 12 February.
This article has been updated.