UK SFO charges five over collapse of law firm Axiom Ince

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The UK Serious Fraud Office has charged five men with offences ranging from fraud to forgery over the collapse of law firm Axiom Ince, which folded with more than £60mn of client money missing.

The SFO said on Friday that it had charged the firm’s former chief executive and director Pragnesh Modhwadia, co-director Shyam Mistry, and chief financial officer Muhammad Ali with two counts of fraud by abuse of position. The agency said they were alleged to have misused client funds and exposed thousands of the firm’s clients to losses.  

Modhwadia and Mistry are also charged with conspiring to conceal, destroy or dispose of documents, alongside the firm’s former chief technology officer Rupesh Karawadra and vice-president of IT Jayesh Anjaria.

In addition, all five men are charged with conspiring to mislead the Solicitors Regulation Authority with false documents.

Axiom Ince was closed by the SRA in October 2023, after allegations that client funds had been misappropriated, and the SFO carried out a series of dawn raids and arrests in connection with its collapse the following month. At the time of its closure, the firm had offices in cities across the country, including in Birmingham, London and Manchester.

“The collapse of Axiom Ince left thousands of clients exposed to significant losses and hundreds of people out of a job,” said SFO director Nick Ephgrave in a statement.

“I pledged at the start of my tenure to speed up case progression at the SFO and with this investigation, opened only 15 months ago, we have conducted a thorough and targeted investigation in record time to bring these charges today,” he added.

The defendants are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in January to face the charges. All of the defendants except Modhwadia were charged at Charing Cross Police Station over the past two days. 

Modhwadia and Mistry were both practising solicitors at the time of the alleged offending. Details of representatives for the defendants were not immediately available.

The Axiom Ince case was the first dawn raid undertaken by Ephgrave after he took up the helm at the agency in September 2023. Under his leadership, the SFO has vowed to move faster on cases in a bid to improve the agency’s reputation, which has long been plagued by high-profile case collapses and inefficiencies.

Since becoming director Ephgrave has opened seven new investigations and hired dozens of lawyers and investigators for the agency.