Canadian Lawyer

12 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m A Law Society of British Colum- bia hearing decision in June for Vancouver lawyer Donald Franklin Gurney has found him guilty of professional misconduct for moving $26 million through his trust account. But it is raising more questions on money laundering than it answers, claims Gurney's defence lawyer. "It is a very disturbing ruling," says Paul Jaffe, acting for Gurney, who plans to appeal a penalty handed down in July either before the LSBC review panel pro- cess or in the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Jaffe challenges the LSBC's citation as abuse of power; he claims there was no evidence to support a money-laundering scheme or that trust funds were misused. He claims that although the LSBC sug- gested money laundering earlier in the investigation, the citation does not. But the LSBC hearing decision, responding to the original citation on May 9, 2016, said: "In order for profes- sional misconduct to be found, illegal activities do not have to be proven." The LSBC's case revolves around four transactions using Gurney's trust account between May 2013 and November 2013 to receive and disburse a total of $25,845,489.87 to a company the LSBC judgment dubbed "C Inc." LSBC spokesman David Jordan says the law society has rules in place to pre- vent lawyers from becoming implicated in money laundering. The LSBC's code of professional conduct states that law- yers can't engage in any activity that they know or ought to know assists in dishon- esty, crime or fraud. The LSBC case is built on the premise that Gurney ought to have known or become suspect of the use of his trust fund. The decision stated that "one would have to ignore a sea of red flags" that were raised, which included: newly incorporated bor- rowers, substantial offshore funds, unknown lenders, lack of security, mistakes in the line of credit agree- ment, loans arranged "through a former lawyer involved with past secu- rities fraudsters," a short turnaround time and legal fees based on a percent- age of flow-through funds. Called to the bar in 1968, Gurney has a West Vancouver practice in com- mercial real estate and business law. He is active in commercial lending practice, acting for mortgagers and three mortgage investment corpora- tions, which are being wound up after having a total of more than $30 mil- lion in private sector loans at their peak. He has no background in off- shore banking. Gurney had worked with EF, a former lawyer, in a practice from 1982 to 1989. EF left the firm in 1989. In 1995, the LSBC suspended EF for one year after the lawyer was found to have committed professional misconduct. Gurney sup- ported EF's reinstatement application, Medico - Legal EXPERT WITNESS ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION EXPERT AUTHORITY KNOWLEDGE TRUSTED OBJECTIVE ACCURATE YOUR CASE IS IMPORTANT. YOU DESERVE THE BEST HEALTHCARE EXPERTISE. Unparallelled experience for your most catastrophic injury cases. Hundreds of specialists from all areas of healthcare expertise. Cost of Future Care reports for your most serious cases. 2,000+ cases for 300+ lawyers across Canada. CONNECTMLX.COM EXPERTS@CONNECTMLX.COM TOLL FREE: 855-278-9273 ntitled-2 1 2017-06-13 8:16 AM \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ P R A I R I E S \ W E S T REGIONAL WRAP-UP LSBC decision highlights lawyer's duty to prevent laundering allowed "repeated references to the victim as a prostitute and Native woman." In her view, the jury may have been erroneously left with the impression that the victim had consented to any sexual activity and any degree of force used by the accused based merely on her engagement in sex work. On the question of public pressure influencing the court, Koshan says, "Courts are not in the business of responding to public pressure, but neither should courts turn a blind eye to pub- lic dissatisfaction over their handling of sexual assault cases." She characterizes the Alberta Court of Appeal's call for "a reset on jury instructions in sexual assault trials" as "perfectly legitimate." Bottos expects to seek leave to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. He has until September to file. Bottos says it is his client's misfortune "to be caught in a legal and political nightmare." — GEOFF ELLWAND Alberta's top court calls for 'reset' in sex assault jury charges Continued from page 11

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