Photo credit: CBC
A British Columbian lawyer who once ran to become mayor of Richmond has been disbarred for the third time.
CBC News reports that Hong Guo was found to have enabled her bookkeeper to steal $7.5 million in client funds. An immigration and real estate lawyer based in Richmond, she was previously disbarred in 2023 when the law society said she was incapable of rehabilitating her professional conduct.
She was again disbarred in February this year.
Guo was absent at the latest hearing in June this year. According to the decision, she never responded to the panel’s attempts to contact her and her sister, “MG. “
In its conclusion, the panel said Guo showed “repetitive, protracted and serious” misconduct and “cannot be trusted to be accurate or show any insight into her behaviour.”
The report reads, “After more than a decade of misconduct and wasted opportunities to illustrate reform, it is clear that the Law Society cannot fulfil its statutory mandate to uphold and protect the administration of justice while also maintaining (Guo) as a member.”
A 2021 tribunal found Guo enabled a bookkeeper to steal $7.5 million in client trust funds between 2014 and 2016 by providing pre-signed blank trust cheques to the bookkeeper when she went on vacation. The panel also found she misappropriated other clients’ money to replace the missing funds to complete real estate transactions.
The latest law society decision says Guo started practising out of her law firm in Richmond in 2010. It says her professional conduct record goes back to 2012 and notes a long list of citations, professional misconduct findings, disciplinary actions, and conduct reviews.
Guo was fined $13,000, which is only a fraction of what it costs to hold the tribunal in addition to two earlier fines levelled by the law society amounting to $93,000.
In a related matter, a warrant for Guo’s arrest was issued in May after she failed to show up for a contempt of court sentencing hearing related to a real estate lawsuit in which she was named a defendant.
