The Solicitors Regulation Authority was ordered to pay costs of £36,000, it has emerged, after the organisation failed to overturn the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s decision to dismiss allegations against a solicitor that he failed to carry out adequate money laundering checks.
George Fahim Sa’id assisted a wealthy Iraqi family in a conveyancing transaction involving two transactions for the purchase of a £27 million hotel and an £8.5 million house, both in London.
The SRA said that as one of the family members was classed as a politically exposed person under money laundering regulations, Sa’id should have carried out an enhanced due diligence check.
The SDT dismissed all the allegations against George Fahim Sa’id, admitted in 1997, and made no order as to costs in October last year.
The regulator appealed the decision at the High Court which was upheld on one ground only in relation to anonymising Sa’id’s clients. The substantive appeal was dismissed and the SRA was ordered by Mrs Justice Thornton to pay Sa’id’s costs of the substantive appeal, assessed at £36,000. This figure had not been disclosed in the Solicitors Regulation Authority Limited v George Fahim Sa’id ruling in June which followed a two-day hearing.
