Banking Lawyer Found Guilty of $12 Million Fraud

Former In-House Banking Lawyer Found Guilty of $12 Million Fraud

Sofia Lind, Legal Week, October 21, 2009

The former deputy head of legal at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has been found guilty of a multimillion-dollar fraud, a U.K. court ruled Tuesday.

Former in-house lawyer Kate Johns faces jail for her crimes, with a sentence to be handed out in December.

London's Southwark Crown Court ruled that Johns was guilty of having repeatedly conned colleagues into signing off large sums of money for investment. In total, the bank lost 7.4 million pounds ($12.3 million) as a result of the scam.

The money was diverted to struggling Indonesian airline Air Efata, which was owned by her friend Frank Taira-Supit. Johns received personal payoffs from Taira-Supit totaling 1.95 million pounds ($3.2 million), which the court was told she used to fund a luxury lifestyle, including shopping trips, breast surgery and paying off the mortgage on a 1.1 million pound ($1.8 million) north London townhouse.

Air Efata went bankrupt last year, after which Taira-Supit committed suicide.

Johns, who was paid a salary of 150,000 pounds ($250,000) in her role at the bank, was convicted of 12 offenses committed during six months in 2006.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Marsh QC of 9 Bedford Row was instructed by the fraud prosecution division of the Crown Prosecution Service, while Dyers Chambers' Andrew Campbell-Tiech QC advised Johns.

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