FSA Scrapes The Barrel For Solicitor

Adrian Murtagh gains experience as fraudster at Marriott Harrison, then finds a place at government agency where he can put those skills to work

LONDON, ENGLAND — (OfficialWire) — 02/12/06 — Adrian Murtagh (shown here), a former solicitor with City firm Marriott Harrison has found a home at The Financial Services Authority (FSA), in the United Kingdom.

According to The Law Society, Murtagh is now working for the FSA-an independent body that regulates the financial services industry in the UK-located in London. That’s a hoot! Given Murtagh’s previous history at Marriott Harrison, it is rather ’rich’ that he would have been able to get a job with the FSA, but then, he’s a good liar.

Murtagh qualified as a solicitor in 1980 and worked for Alsop Wilkinson in Hong Kong and then Steptoe & Johnson Rakisons in London, before joining Marriott Harrison. It was there, at Steptoe & Johnson, that he worked with former Marriott Harrison partner, Janes Jales and where his troubles began.

In October 2001 Marriott Harrison solicitors were appointed company secretary to IEQ PLC (formerly Intermediate Equity plc), and Murtagh began the process of drafting a lawsuit that would eventually be filed against a number of the former directors of the company.

The first lawsuit, filed on January 10, 2002, involved significant breaches of fiduciary duty by each of the former directors that resulted in the loss of more than £3 million in shareholder funds.

Towards the end of January 2002, Murtagh went on his skiing holiday, leaving the legal process in the hands of his boss-Jales. In the first week of February 2002, Sir Richard Needham (former IEQ director & chairman) and Anthony Caplin (former IEQ director), both defendants in IEQ’s lawsuit, paid the sum of £55,000 into Court. IEQ was at that time claiming more than £500,000 from these two men (a second lawsuit would later increase this amount to more than £3 million).

When Jales received notification of the payment into Court, she accepted it as full and final settlement, thereby wiping away the balance of IEQ’s legitimate claim. The fact that at the time Marriott Harrison also represented Durlacher Corporation plc (now Panmure Gordon & Co. plc )-a company Caplin previously chaired-raises the question whether or not a conflict of interest existed or whether Jales was merely stupid.

Upon his return from the French Alps, Murtagh was told about the payment into court. Having drafted the lawsuit, he would have or should have been immediately aware of the deficiency. But he and Jales made a deal to keep her ’mistake’ a secret. Jales was in her final year as a solicitor before she planned to retire-a major cock-up like this would spoil her otherwise perfect or undetected career.

It would be more than a year before Jales finally confided in her client, telling a then IEQ director about what she termed ’a mistake’.

According to Catherine Adams, a caseworker with the Conduct Assessment and Investigation Unit of The Law Society, Jales, acted in breach of Principle 15.04 of The Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors 1999 (8th Edition) in that she acted in a transaction where her interests conflicted with her those of her client. However, The Law Society decided it would take no further action against Jales.

The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales disagreed with that opinion and eventually referred the investigation of Murtagh, Jales and Marriott Harrison back to The Law Society and according to Paul Finnegan, his findings will be released shortly. So stay tuned!

You can read about both these crooked solicitors and an entire cast of characters including Sir Richard Needham and Tony Caplin, in David Alexander’s recent book Crooked Knight: How It All Went Wrong For IEQ, (published by Baou, Inc., ISBN: 0974793604, pp. 200, $12.99, CAD$15.99, £8.99, +p&p). For more information or to buy a copy, visit -http://www.CrookedKnight.com

– http://news.baou.com/main.php?actio...