Runaway Lawyer Zulkifli Amin - He Flew To Philippines And Billed His Firm

Source : The Straits Times, Jan 2, 2008

Lawyer may have also used part of missing $6m to pay costs of delayed property deals

bolted to the Philippines on an air ticket he did not pay for. It was billed to his law firm.

As more details surface from efforts to trace more than $6 million that went missing when he vanished in November, it has also emerged that he may have used some of the money to settle costs incurred from delayed property deals.

Mr Zulkifli, 33, a lawyer for about seven years, was one of three partners in law firm Sadique Marican and ZM Amin. His partners alerted the authorities when he disappeared and a police probe is ongoing.

He headed the firm’s conveyancing and real estate department. The Straits Times understands that as the property market took off last year, he took on more work than he could handle.

He had more than a dozen secretaries who processed and handled clients’ matters, said a staff member who resigned recently. Typically, a lawyer would have up to five assistants to cope with similar property-related work.

It is believed that some of Mr Zulkifli’s transactions stalled when he could not complete his work on time and there were penalties to pay for the delays.

One such transaction is believed to have led to a $200,000 penalty for a property valued at $700,000, after a delay caused the seller to offer the property to another buyer at $900,000.

A property seller who lost money on a deposit due to him from Mr Zulkifli alleged that the lawyer dipped into some other client’s monies in the firm’s account to fork out the difference and make the original deal stick. Such payments are not allowed and as his troubles piled up, they may have snowballed.

The current rules are that two lawyers must sign cheques to withdraw money from a client’s account for any amount exceeding $30,000, among other things. It appears that Mr Zulkifli acted alone and may have forged the second signature or perpetrated some other fraud.

It is believed the $6 million disappeared as he kept ‘rolling’ money to pay penalties, but it is unclear how much he kept for himself before he fled.

More than a dozen people have reported that their deposits with the firm’s conveyancing section went missing.

It is understood investigators are now trying to establish the extent of unauthorised payoffs he made, and attempts are expected to be made to reclaim these monies.

Meanwhile, the firm remains open for business at its premises at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh Central. Only the conveyancing section was affected by Mr Zulkifli’s disappearance.

‘We’ve secured the interests of all the affected clients and our other work is going on,’ partner Sadique Marican said, when contacted by The Straits Times.

Two victims said they would give the firm more time to settle the outstanding amounts owed.

Mail company manager John Sasayiah, who lost some $26,000 in deposits, said: ‘We want to be fair to them but, at the same time, I hope to see some closure by this month.’

Mr Zulkifli, a bachelor, lived at his family home in Chai Chee until about two years ago. He and his younger sister moved out after their mother died of cancer in 2005. Their father had died earlier.

‘The family kept to themselves and hardly mixed with anyone,’ said a neighbour who had lived in his block in Chai Chee Street for more than 20 years.

‘Even when their mother died, we did not know.’