Western Cape judge Mushtak Parker’s former business partner and brother have provided details in court papers about how his brother sold his and his wife’s cars to raise funds to pay for a trust fund shortfall.
Parker, his brother Irfan (an attorney) and Abdurahman Khan are accused of managing a law firm that allegedly misappropriated clients’ trust fund money and operated on an R8m deficit by 2018.
Judge Parker stepped away from the firm’s operations when appointed to the bench in 2017, but became involved again when the firm was investigated for the trust fund shortfall which he helped pay for in 2019/20.
Irfan testified last week at a judicial conduct tribunal investigating whether the judge was involved in the alleged misappropriation of funds by their firm, Parker and Khan Inc.
If the judge is found guilty, he faces a charge of gross misconduct that could lead to his impeachment.
At the tribunal, Irfan was questioned about his affidavit in which he responded to the allegations. In the affidavit, he denied allegations by the Legal Practice Council that he might have participated in the misappropriation of clients’ funds.
Misappropriation of clients’ funds is described as the “worst professional sin” in the legal fraternity.
The Legal Practice Council in 2020 applied to the Western Cape High Court to have Irfan and Khan struck off the roll. Irfan has been fighting the application, saying his business partner, Khan, was responsible for the firm’s finances.
In fear of losing legal rights to oversee trust funds as a lawyer, he, the judge and Khan scrambled to raise funds to pay for the shortfall within months as the barring case reached court. The shortfall was about R4.7m in September 2019.
Irfan described how the partners paid the shortfall as follows:
- Irfan paid R1.7m from December 2019-February 2020.
- The judge paid R1.15m towards the shortfall after borrowing money.
- Khan paid the highest amount of R2.25m.
The Legal Practice Council said in its papers that Kahn had suggested that “he may be required to cash in his policies and pension fund, and possibly sell his residential home to raise the funds”.
Irfan said he raised funds by taking his own money and “took steps to sell my motor vehicles and those belonging to my wife in order to further reduce the trust account shortfall. The payments by myself largely contributed to the firm’s trust account shortfall being extinguished.”
The shortfall, Irfan said, was created by Khan, who dipped into the trust funds of clients to pay his financial contributions to the operations of the firm. Some of the funds he paid back when he was paid by litigating clients.
None of the funds were linked to have been paid to the directors.
Despite paying the shortfall, the Legal Practice Council persists in its case against Khan and Irfan, saying they are a “danger” to the public and were “reckless” in managing their accounting books, something that should not be accepted for attorneys overseeing trust funds.
The shortfall dilemma also still haunts judge Parker. The Cape Bar Council has persisted with its complaint against him, saying he failed to disclose the poor financial state of his law firm during his interview to become a judge.
During the tribunal hearing judge Parker did not challenge or dispute the contents of his brother’s affidavit, which implicates him.
The tribunal was postponed to April 29 for arguments. The Legal Practice Council case against Khan and Irfan is still pending and has not been finalised.
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