A veteran Wollongong lawyer has been arrested and charged after a $2.3 million fraud scandal was uncovered inside one of the region’s most prominent law firms.
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Nigel Duncan, 64, was working for Maguire and McInerney Lawyers when he allegedly embezzled $730,000 from the estates of dead clients – all while making $1.5 million worth of fraudulent financial transactions to cover his tracks – over a six-year period beginning in June 2011.
Evidence of misappropriation of funds was discovered by the firm in August 2017, however it took until November that year for a team of forensic accountants to unearth the extent of the alleged scam, which had been missed by other auditors during previous external, annual reviews.
Maguire and McInerney immediately fired Duncan before advising his clients of the situation in writing and taking out a loan to repay those affected.
Duncan, who has since moved to Dubbo and is understood to be driving a delivery van to make ends meet, was charged with two counts of fraud on Monday afternoon. He was granted bail to front court in Wollongong in January.
Speaking exclusively to the Mercury on Monday evening, Maguire and McInerney partner Mark McDonald said the firm and its staff had been rocked when the allegations surfaced.
“He came to us in 2010 because his previous partnership [with Wollongong-based firm Lough Wells and Duncan] had ended and he was effectively looking for work,” Mr McDonald said.
“We gave him a home. We trusted him to act honestly, professionally and ethically as we expect from all of our lawyers. This has been a difficult time for all of us.”
Mr McDonald said the firm had worked closely with the NSW Law Society – and later Wollongong detectives – to allow for thorough investigations to take place. The Law Society has cleared the firm of any wrong doing.
Meantime, the Mercury understands about $400,000 of the $730,000 Duncan is alleged to have misappropriated for his own personal use came from two estates where the clients had appointed Duncan as the sole executor.
One of those wills was made in 2003, well before Duncan joined Maguire and McInerney, while the other was made in 2012 while he was at the firm.
In both cases, those who stood to financially benefit from the estate lived overseas.
It is understood police will allege Duncan used sophisticated tactics in an attempt to cover his alleged offending, including creating false documents to make the money he allegedly siphoned out of the estates look like legitimate expense payments and beneficiary transfers.
