Longtime Hamilton lawyer disbarred

Peter Borkovich misappropriated funds

A longtime Hamilton lawyer has had his licence to practice revoked by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Peter Borkovich, 68, admitted in his Law Society disciplinary case that he misappropriated more than $200,000 from two estate funds and engaged in acts of dishonesty in relation to his law practice.

Borkovich was called to the bar in 1975 and practised primarily in the areas of employment law and litigation, with a small amount of estate work.

The written decision from the Law Society outlines how Borkovich used some of the misappropriated trust fund money to pay his personal income taxes and his property taxes.

In some cases, Borkovich had used money from the trusts as loans made to other clients or to repay other people not associated with the estates. Borkovich subsequently admitted that he did not insist on promissory notes or other security when he loaned the money from the estate funds.

In at least one case, one estate trustee stated the signature on a document she had purportedly signed was not her signature.

The trust account irregularities began to surface in the summer of 2014 when the Law Society conducted a spot audit of Borkovich’s books.

The Law Society also noted that Borkovich had filed a false affidavit with the Ontario Superior Court in connection with one of the estates. Borkovich told the Law Society he had become very involved with the Serb National Federation.

The fraternal organization has ties to the Serb National Church.

In 2003, he became the North American vice-president of the federation and in 2007, he was named president.

The time commitments with the federation, he explained, had a significant impact on his law practice.

There was “no money coming in the door,” Borkovich stated.

Borkovich told the Law Society he used the estate money to cover his own financial obligations because he was ashamed to tell his spouse about the predicament he had put them in or that they would have to sell their house and use the equity from the sale to make the necessary repayments.

The Law Society noted that Borkovich had no prior disciplinary history, had produced 19 letters of support from other members of the Hamilton legal community and repaid the money in question.

“It’s a situation that happened and I have to accept the consequences of it,” Borkovich said in a brief interview with The Spectator.

“There was no money lost and there’s no client complaints,” he added.

Borkovich was born in Sudbury, according to the Law Society decision, and received a law degree from the University of Manitoba in 1973.