Richmond lawyer guilty of professional misconduct in bookkeeper's $7.5M theft won't be disbarred

ALaw Society of British Columbia tribunal review panel has ruled against disbarring Richmond lawyer Hong Guo, who was foundguilty of professional misconduct related to the theft of $7.5 million in client funds by her bookkeeper.

Guo was originally suspended from practising law for a full year.The LSBCbrought the review application to disbar her, arguing it was the only reasonable penalty for the totality of her misconduct.

In 2021, alaw society tribunal found Guohad failed to supervise her employees, failed to comply with trust accounting rulesand had left signed blankcheques with the bookkeeper, which enabledthe theft of money from client trust funds.

The tribunal found that on discovering the thefts, Guo misappropriated money from the trust funds of other clientsin order tocomplete pending real estate transactions.

The clients impacted were eventually compensated by Guopersonally and through $4 million paid out by an insurance policy.

The investigation into Guo's misconduct began in 2018 while she was running to become mayor of Richmond.

At the time, she defended herself on Twitter, explaining that it was two former employees one of them her accountant who stole the money from herpooled trust account by forging her signature.Guosaid she reported the theft to RCMP as soon as she found out about it.

The review panel upheld her one-year suspension, which starts today, March 8, 2023. It also ordered Guo to enter into a practice supervision agreement when she returns to practice, meaning she will be working under the supervision of another lawyer.