Suspended Richmond attorney faces eight more cases of alleged misconduct

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A Richmond real estate attorney who has been suspended for a year for her mishandling of trust accounts of which $ 7.5 million disappeared in 2016, faces many other disciplinary charges, according to the BC Law Society.

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In eight separate actions, six of those filed in 2020 and 2021, Hong Guo, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Richmond in 2018, faces allegations related to a conflict of interest in the purchase of a sawmill, a real estate development project. and a purchase. of shares in a company. He also faces allegations of misconduct for misappropriation or improper handling of customer payments and mishandling of trust funds.

The allegations include Guo mishandling money for a company for which she was removed as a signing authority and for violating a 2019 order against the practice of law when she was temporarily suspended from doing so.

The complaints in most cases have not been heard by a court of the law society (the body that resolves disciplinary issues) and have not been proven.

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The law society had requested Guo’s disbarment for the case in which he received a one-year suspension, but it is not known at this time what penalties, if any, he would face in the other cases. If the allegations are proven, the penalties are based on the facts of each case and the sentences in similar cases.

In one of the eight cases, a hearing was held, and it was discovered that Guo had mishandled trust funds, where he deposited cash advances for legal services in connection with the purchase and transfer of shares, a marriage agreement, and various wills in its general. account and not a trust account.

At that time, Guo was also restricted from handling trust funds by order of the BC Law Society.

In that case, Guo had argued that the advance payment for a “fixed fee” legal service becomes the property of the attorney and therefore does not constitute fiat money and does not need to be deposited into a trust account.

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The court disagreed.

A court hearing was held this summer to determine a penalty in that case, but has yet to be issued.

The timing of the hearings in the other cases is not yet known, said Jason Kuzminski, a spokesman for the BC Law Society.

“I appreciate that the panel’s decision recognized that I covered the shortage of trusts and no clients suffered any losses,” Guo said in a written statement Tuesday.

In his recent one-year suspension beginning December 1, a court found that Guo had committed professional misconduct by failing to supervise his employees, by failing to comply with trust accounting rules, and by leaving a series of trust checks. signed in white with your accountant. This facilitated the theft by the accountant of $ 7.5 million of trust funds from clients.

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The panel also found that Guo misappropriated some clients ‘trust funds, in order to replace missing funds from other clients’ trust accounts that were necessary to complete pending real estate transactions.

In the recent suspension decision, the law society had requested a disciplinary sanction of disqualification, but the court, in ordering the one-year suspension, found that the misconduct had been motivated by the intention to ensure that pending transactions were completed. on time, and that everyone Finally, Guo and an employee insurance policy financially compensated customers. The panel also noted that Guo currently does not have access to a trust account and is practicing under the supervision of another attorney.

In the past, Guo has said that he was a victim. She blamed her former employees for the trust account situation, saying she had to trust and delegate work to staff, given the size of her practice.

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Civil filings in the BC Supreme Court had shown that about 100 clients were affected by the disappearance of $ 7.5 million from the trust accounts of Guo’s law firm, which she said completed about $ 700 million a year in transactions. real estate.

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