Recently, a client signed the settlement deed for a matter we have settled. Our elderly client was persuaded to part with $250,000 for an interest in a building development, without any proper details of what the development involved, no security and vague terms as to what he would receive once the development was complete.
The deal is that he will get his money back, though not for a little while, but we made sure that all the releases are conditional upon payment in full.
If the payment is not made, we will be taking action against the 6 or 7 parties who were involved in transaction to some extent, including his financial planner and related entities, whose lack of systems allowed an employee to transfer the funds from an account to the client’s personal account without authorisation from her boss, which was followed shortly thereafter by her husband taking our client to the bank to draw a $250,000 cheque in favour of the developer, which is another company again.
Given the client’s involvement in the transaction, he is possibly lucky to be getting his money back, and it has cost him a not-insubstantial amount in legal fees to get to this position, but not as much as a court action would have cost him.
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