An SRA notice published on 7th March states that Mr Michael Nouril, currently a non-practising solicitor and former member of Mishcon De Reya LLP, will be forced to pay a £17,500 fine as well as £3,500 in costs as a result of non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) rules, an incident for which Mischon de Reya were fined £232,500 January.
Nouril acted for two individual clients, and corporate vehicles connected with the same two individual clients. This related to asset planning for one of the individuals, and a proposed acquisition of two separate entities.
During this work, a full set of due diligence documents was not obtained by Nouril in relation to one of the corporate vehicles. This presented a “higher risk of money laundering or terrorist financing” under the relevant money laundering legislation at the time, as the work involved offshore companies in higher-risk jurisdictions. This required enhanced customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring, which Nouril failed to perform.
£1.7m of payments were also made in and out of the firm’s client account which did not relate to an underlying legal transaction in relation to which Mr Nouril and the firm were instructed, thus banking facilities were incorrectly provided. The SRA say no bill of costs or written notification of the costs were sent to the relevant entities before two invoices were raised and paid.
Mischon de Reya commissioned an external investigation which found Nouril responsible for the above relationship, and also found he had not received mandatory training as required by AML regulations and the SRA Accounts Rules as, when the training was given, he was absent.
Nouril says he regrets his lack of understanding and accepts the gaps in his knowledge were his responsibility. He fully cooperated with the SRA’s investigation, admitted the breaches, and has now undertaken training in AML and the SRA Accounts Rules. These mitigating factors saw Nouril’s fine reduced 30% from an initial £25,000.
