NPP member Ross Owusu has defended the practice of lawyers receiving and transferring money through their law firms’ accounts on behalf of clients, arguing that the transaction alone does not establish any wrongdoing.
Owusu said there was no law prohibiting a lawyer from receiving funds into a personal or law firm account and subsequently transferring them to a client.
His comments follow questions surrounding an alleged transfer of about GHC1 million from the account of Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah’s former law firm to the then Managing Director of SIC Life Savings & Loans, an issue linked to EOCO’s investigation into alleged financial irregularities at the company.
Owusu said lawyers sometimes receive money recovered on behalf of clients and transfer it to the intended recipients as part of their professional duties.
“I have done cases where my firm has recovered a certain amount of money and the money was paid into my account, sometimes into the firm’s account. And there is nothing wrong in law,” he said on TV3’s New Day.
“If a lawyer, money is paid into a lawyer’s account on behalf of a client or money is paid into a firm’s account on behalf of a client to only transfer that money to that client, there is no law that bars it,” he added.
Owusu challenged anyone who disagreed with his position to identify a law that expressly prohibits such transactions.
However, when the discussion turned to the alleged transfer involving the former SIC Life managing director, Owusu acknowledged that the circumstances and destination of the payment could raise professional concerns if established.
“The MD of the client’s company, not to the client’s company, to the MD of the client’s company,” the host clarified during the discussion.
Owusu responded that if the alleged transfer to the managing director was confirmed, the matter could amount to professional misconduct.
“Well, if that is the case and that is found to be true, then this will border on misconduct. And this misconduct, I’m telling you, is not within the remit of EOCO. It’s within the remit of the General Legal Council,” he said.
