Lawyers who loot
Account plundering rife — 24 struck off the roll for this last year
DODGY lawyers are stealing hundreds of millions of rand from their clients by looting trust accounts.
Peter Cowling and Christiaan Janeke are the latest lawyers to be struck off the roll, and are facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing at least R65million from their clients.
Many were pensioners. Among them was Athena Harilaou, 86, who died “from stress” after realising she was not going to get back the R2.9-million she had agreed to invest with their law firm after selling her late husband’s business.
Cowling, 70, was also found to have allegedly misappropriated R1-million from his church. The money was paid into his trust account after he offered to assist in the sale of church land.
The two men, from Brakpan, on the East Rand, and Janeke’s son, also a lawyer, are being investigated by the Hawks.
Cowling’s assets have been attached following an application to the High Court in Pretoria by one of his alleged victims. The assets include several properties, rare coins, luxury cars and a stamp collection.
This week, the Law Society of South Africa said 49 lawyers had been struck off the roll last year — 24 of them for plundering trust accounts.
And the Attorneys Fidelity Fund said it had paid out more than R745-million over eight years to South Africans fleeced by their trusted legal advisers.
To date, it has received claims totalling R82-million in connection with Cowling and Janeke. Almost R19-million has been paid out.
Law Society of South Africa co-chairman Jan van Rensburg said theft of money from property sales and winding up of deceased estates was on the increase. In the year ended July, 11 230 complaints had been lodged against lawyers. “The theft of RAF [Road Accident Fund] money seems to have gone down and the trend is that conveyancing theft is increasing because there’s so much money in properties these days that the temptation is there.”
Stefan de Beer, 80, lost R32million after Cowling “advised” him to deposit the money into his trust account. ‘‘This has destroyed us . . . we trusted our lawyer because he knew better. He said it would be better than a saving account and we would have access to money if we needed to buy property instead of getting a bond,” said De Beer.
But when De Beer began to ask for money to buy a home at a retirement village, he said Cowling stalled the payment.
Months later Cowling offered him R22-million, but the money was never paid.
“We’ve spent most of our money hiring new lawyers. We are living hand to mouth.”
Cowling and Janeke, 63, were partners in a practice for 34 years. They dissolved their professional relationship in 2012. Soon after, dozens of complaints surfaced accusing the two of cleaning out the trust account.
A 2013 investigation into the firm, Trollip, Cowling and Janeke, by the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, uncovered irregular auditing practices, missing files and a trust account with a R9-million deficit. The firm was liquidated that year.
The assets of both men have been sequestrated.
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the case docket had been handed over for a decision by the prosecutor. “There are about 35 complainants,” Mulaudzi said.
Among them is Harilaou’s grandson, Paul Flemetakis, who said the stress of losing R2.9million two years ago had killed his grandmother.
In 2011, Harilaou invested the cash she made from the sale of a soft-drink factory with Cowling. The factory was started and built up by her husband. After he died she decided to sell it.
Flemetakis said Cowling had paid his grandmother a stipend of around R20 000 for a few months. But when the payments dried up, Harilaou asked for her money back.
“He stalled, saying tomorrow, but tomorrow never came.
“You know what killed her? It was a burst ulcer from the stress. She called him every day and she never got her money,” said Flemetakis.
Last year, 854 claims totalling R271-million were lodged with the Attorneys Fidelity Fund, but less than half this amount was paid out.
Former KwaZulu-Natal state attorney Krish Govender, who is a member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, said the fund was often “self-strangled by outdated statutory and self-made bureaucracy that hardly works for victims in desperate and special circumstances. Their main goal is to hold on to the money and only pay out a claim after the victim has overcome every obstacle on the exhausting road to finding justice and proving their claim.”
This has destroyed us . . . we trusted our lawyer because he knew better