Former Dunedin lawyer John Milne faces 33 criminal charges over $2.8 million of clients' missing funds, following a year-long investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The charges were laid in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.
SFO acting chief executive Simon McArley said in a statement yesterday: ''A sad fact of this case is that a significant number of Mr Milne's clients were elderly and vulnerable people, often widows living alone''.
Milne (78), who declared himself bankrupt last year, has since been disbarred from being a lawyer and in April was found guilty by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal on four counts of misconduct.
In the tribunal finding, the New Zealand Law Society labelled Milne's actions as ''reprehensible'' and having ''grossly abused'' clients' trust.
After the first allegations of Milne's offending came to light in June 2012, the Otago branch of the Law Society launched its investigation, followed by the SFO beginning its own, separate, investigation last July.
Over a period of about 20 years, Milne took a total $2.86 million of funds from clients, many of them friends and acquaintances, ranging from about $10,000 to almost $1 million.
Mr McArley said the charges related to Milne eliciting money from clients or associates on the premise he would invest the money and pay them a return on their invested funds.
The SFO alleges that none of that money had been invested, but that some early investors had been repaid with monies received from later clients.
''It is believed that Mr Milne operated the scheme for a period in excess of 20 years from 1991 to 2012,'' Mr McArley said.
Milne had a client base in Dunedin derived from his previous legal work in a sole practice in the city.
The SFO is known to have contacted several of the affected former clients in Dunedin, as recently as a few weeks ago.
