Editorial | Clients of Hong Kong law firm need speedy justice
- Closure of one of Hong Kong’s leading conveyancing companies is causing thousands of innocent people financial pain as they desperately try to get their money back from frozen accounts
Buying or selling a property is a stressful business at the best of times. It requires the placing of trust in law firms, not only for their advice but for the handling of large sums of money. It is the clients who suffer if a firm breaches that trust and its bank accounts are frozen.
This is the nightmare scenario facing thousands of innocent people caught up in a financial scandal at one of Hong Kong’s biggest conveyancing firms.
The Law Society stepped in to freeze funds held by Wong, Fung and Co on December 24 after an investigation raised suspicions of dishonest conduct. A former clerk at the firm is alleged to have misappropriated money belonging to clients.
The firm is also accused of breaching rules by overdrawing on client accounts and allowing unqualified people to be authorised signatories. The matter has been referred to police.
The Law Society, in taking action, was fulfilling its legal obligations as regulator of the city’s law firms. It exercised powers given to it by the Legal Practitioners Ordinance to intervene in the firm’s business.