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Re Marshall Hall

Nobody deposits money with solicitors just for investment purposes. They put money in Escrow accounts where the solicitor is legally contracted to carry out some predetermined due diligence to ensure that the money is being used for the purposes intended.
In the case of the Ecohouse £33m fraud the solicitors were obliged to check that the housing schemes were registered with the Brazilian Government under the Mia Casa Mia Vita scheme. Apart from the first development this was not done and money was released to the Brazilian builders without even a plot designation.
The fact that the Solicitors employed the daughter of the only UK Director of Ecohouse Developments to operate the Escrow accounts was not considered suspicious by the SRA when they belatedly sought closure of the firm Sanders & Co.
This UK Director is currently being pursued by the Insolvency Service for Money Laundering and false representation and he has been banned from serving as a Director for 9 years.
Philip Hall knows nothing about the financing of property developments where 15% to 20% interest rates are quite common even for secured loans in the UK.
If the SRA is successful in further reducing consumers protection then the profession will soon be tarred with new scandals. The regulator needs to be much more vigilant and Pro active in rooting out problems. In the Ecohouse case they allowed the fraud to continue for 10 months before intervening.
Tim Hyde