Rodel Fiduciary reposted this
MISAPPROPRIATION OF TRUST FUNDS FOR CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN Mr Nonxuba was admitted as an attorney and specialises in personal injury and medical negligence cases involving children who sustained birth injuries because of negligence on the part of medical personnel during the birth process, resulting in hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, foetal distress and, ultimately, cerebral palsy. The Legal Practice Council applies for the striking off of the name of Mr Nonxuba from the roll of attorneys. During the course of the manifold applications, many thousands of pages were added to an ever-burgeoning record and at least 17 judges were involved in adjudicating the various procedural and substantive legal skirmishes. Despite the fact that the court orders in all five medical negligence claims were made during 2018 and 2019, Nonxuba, as of July 2021, had not established all the trusts, and where the trusts had been established, he failed to pay over the monies due to these trusts. A further complaint was received on behalf of the Eastern Cape Provincial Treasury which identified a further five trusts which Mr Nonxuba had failed to establish timeously or at all. The LPC submitted that the trust bank account statements indicate that Mr Nonxuba made unlawful transfers from trust to business. It is inconceivable that he was entitled to trust funds amounting to R348,845,000 which he transferred in perfectly round amounts on 759 occasions since January 2017. The LPC concluded, therefore, that Mr Nonxuba siphoned off an astonishingly large amount of money from his clients over an extended period. Mr Nonxuba failed to comply with at least ten court orders requiring him to establish trusts and to pay over the funds held by him into these trusts.The remaining allegations relating to the misappropriation of trust funds and the fabrication of accounting records were met by a bare denial and a promise by Mr Nonxuba that the report from the accountant (Wapenaar) would exculpate him. The Wapenaar report, however, underscored the severity and extent of Mr Nonxuba’s transgressions. Mr Nonxuba has, through his deception of his clients, the LPC, and this court, shown himself not to be a fit and proper person to continue to be in practice. Theft of trust funds by practitioners does not only result in untold hardship for the victims, but it also brings the legal profession into disrepute. Those legal practitioners who violate the rules and ethics of the profession by failing to uphold the highest standards of honesty, reliability and integrity must suffer the consequences of their nefarious actions. The name of Zuko Mack Michael Nonxuba or Nonxuba Inc is struck off the roll of legal practitioners of this Honourable Court. South African Legal Practice Council v Nonxuba and Another (16777/2023) [2024] ZAWCHC 410 (4 December 2024) https://lnkd.in/eS7RaZDq