A SEQUEL TO ‘A CRIME OF LAW AND JUSTICE
WHEN JUSTICE IS NO JUSTICE AT ALL
JAMES CONOMOS’ HOLD ON THE LAW SOCIETY AND LSC- A LICENSE TO STEAL
No sooner than Conomos had realized the gravity of his offence of having improperly dealt with $20 million in trust monies, in breach of his trust obligations, and in breach of a court order, he immediately contacted certain officials of the Queensland Law Society (Society) for help to deal with the matter.
Conomos, according to a Society insider, discussed ways on how to shield him from agitation by Delta for return of the monies and soften the legal impact of his actions over the breach of trust accounting rules. He sought help as to how limit any fall out from Delta Law’s (Delta) pursuit of the return of the award money from the arbitration in BS1714 of 2011 from gaining traction. The Society obliged him.
James Conomo’s objective it appears, was to enlist the Society’s support to pressure the then director of Delta Law, who claimed a lien over those monies, from agitating for its return to Conomos’s trust for redistribution in accordance with the law.
The Society was aware at all times that James Conomos had breached the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules (ASCR) and the law (the 2007 ) in manner in which he dealt with the $20 million he held in his firm’s trust account. The Society refused to sanction Conomos. So too the Legal Services Commission in Queensland (LSC) with who complaints were lodged against James Conomos.
According to an informant, Conomos was also advised by a party at the Society and by Francis Douglas KC to ‘lean’ on the administrator, William Cotter, over who to admit as creditors of Delta. Evidence later emerged that Cotter, weakened under the pressure from Conomos and others involved in the breach of trust caved in.
There was undisclosed confidential correspondence running between Shah, a solicitor of the firm Rose Litigation lawyers, solicitors for William Cotter and James Conomos over issue of ‘stacking’ the creditors meeting. James Conomos was well acquainted with William Cotter as the two had done business previously.
Shah promptly left Rose Litigation following the second Creditors meeting he engineered with Cotter in 2020. Shah left amid strong protests against Cotter’s decision to admit certain creditors whose bona fides failed to meet the necessary legal threshold for them to be admitted as creditors of Delta.
These were, Barrister Anthony Hopkins (substituted by Edmund Galea), Francis Douglas KC, Stephen Colditz and a creditor by the name of Law and Commerce Partners.
An independent review of Cotter’s decision in admitting them as creditors at the second meeting of in the administration of Delta has concluded that none of the “Creditors” save for Delta and its principal had any standing to have satisfied the criteria of Delta. Not one of them.
The information Conomos supplied to Cotter, the administrator of Delta, to the Society and to their lawyers including Rose Litigation, was deliberately curated, de contextualized and manipulative in its descriptions of the facts and the reality of events that led to Delta being placed in the hands of an administrator.
The Society knew better, but preferred Conomos’s version of facts for convenience and to avoid embarrassment to themselves. At stake was the reputation of the legal profession and the statutory bodies representing them including Society.
Conomos was in direct contact with Lauren Fitzgerald and Peter Smiley and certain other officers of the Society who in response to his request for assistance, issued a series of notices to the former director and principal lawyer of Delta, alleging malpractice and unsatisfactory professional conduct.
Fitzgerald it is said supplied Conomos with copies of the Society’s correspondence she had with the former director of Delta. The committee at the Society who decided the outcome of their investigation under Section 80 of the LPA (Queensland) against Delta’s sole practitioner included a solicitor from a firm that had previously acted for Delta but was later sacked by Delta for alleged incompetence.
Peter Smiley on behalf of the Society later refused to renew that solicitor’s practicing certificate on grounds of findings made by the former chief justice against the Delta solicitor in BS 8866 & BS 8867 of 2019.
It is also now known although not disclosed at the time of the hearing of BS8866 & BS8867 of 2019, that Conomos was socially acquainted with the former chief justice, Catherine Holmes J who presided over BS 8866 & BS 8867 of 2019.
The Legal Services Commission in Queensland has dragged its feet for more than 2 years on the investigation into Conomos’s misconduct. The Society on the other hand has simply refused to investigate Conomos’s dealings with $20 million in trust funds.
This particular matter hi lights an extensive array of judicial, regulatory and institutional discrimination beyond what the law is able to justify. At an earlier hearing during the arbitration at the center of this matter, Ian Callinan KC, a retired High Court judge and arbitrator in the Mango Hill matter, referred to Delta’s solicitor as “Khemlani,” a crude reference to the solicitor’s ethnicity and in disparagement of the man. It was apparently not the only racially inspired attack on that solicitor. The Queensland Bar and the Society ignored the incident.
REVISITING THE SELECTIVE NATURE OF HOLMES J’S FINDINGS
The travesty of Holmes J’s findings against Delta’s principal lies in her failing to make any finding against Conomos inspite of the gravity of his fatal and improper dealings with $20 million in trust funds over which Delta and its sole practitioner held liens.
Holmes J made no findings against solicitor Richard Spencer who admitted to creating false documents, invoices and deeds. Her findings against the Delta solicitor was based on her perceptions of his apparent credibility arising from how he testified in the witness box. There is no evidence in her findings that he was a dishonest witness.
James Conomos in his communications with the Society had asked the Society to dig up as much as they could on Delta’s principal solicitor to pressure him to end his agitation against Conomos’s misconduct in mishandling of $20million in trust funds.
Conomos later approached the Delta solicitor in 2020 with an offer of $300,000 to ‘resolve’ the matter. From the information FSB has obtained in the matter, Silvana Perovich and Richard Spencer volunteered to assist the Society and James Conomos in this regard.
The Society continues to allow James Conomos and Richard Spencer to hold principal’s practicing certificates without restriction inspite of their admissions to having committed serious breaches of the law, ASCR and the Societies charter.
DOUGLAS OPENS A DOOR TO WAIVING PRIVILEGE
A former (now retired) Federal investigator into child pornography has told FSB that:
“the list of lawyers (barristers and solicitors) who engage in unauthorized sharing of confidential information about their clients and witnesses including intimate and sexually explicit pornographic material, salacious and very personal correspondence is overwhelming”.
Dyson Heydon, his mates at the bench, the bar and a slew of other legal professionals have not been so lucky it seems. Witnesses at their private junkets in ski resorts, aboard private yachts, at secluded lodges for their trysts with prostitutes, have testified: that guests at these gatherings, including some of the lawyers and judges named, often also engaged in unauthorized impermissible discussions about legal proceedings and witnesses at these gatherings.
Some of this information was forwarded to the inquiry over Dyson’s sexual misconduct. However, it was never admitted, acknowledged or considered in the Dyson inquiry. The inquiry was more narrowly focused on the particular sexual assault complaints leveled against Dyson.
Francis Douglas, by his unlawful and deliberate actions of droning Delta opened the door to a private investigation into his conduct with Delta. The information caused the Society and the LSC to seize up. Douglas used Delta as a “drone solicitor” without the prior knowledge or consent of its sole practitioner director. By his actions Francis Douglas necessarily waived privilege over correspondence between himself, his juniors, James Conomos, Robert Whitton (trustee of the bankrupt estate of Silvana Perovich) and other parties involved in the Mango Hill Litigation.
Silvana Perovich, the client who volunteered at Delta enjoyed a special relationship with Douglas. She was unequivocally, undoubtedly and willingly used as a tool by Douglas to impersonate the sole practitioner at Delta. James Conomos in dealing directly with her in the Mango Hill Arbitration case knew he was acting improperly even though he was solicitor for the trustee of Silvana’s bankrupt estate.
There is extensive documentary evidence of Perovich impersonating Delta’s sole practitioner, forging his signature in correspondence a matter Francis Douglas and James Conomos were both acutely aware of. In the process Douglas compromised his junior barristers including one Anthony Hopkins from his chambers at Tenth floor Chambers in Sydney. The others he compromised include David Keane KC and Stephen Colditz. Thee latter two engaged extensively in direct briefing.
Hopkins claimed he was instructed by Delta in a particular matter (a claim proved to be false) and later sold his fee invoice on that matter to Edmond Galea at Douglas’s urging. Galea then used that invoice to join Douglas, Spencer, Perovich, Keane and Colditz to stack then control the administration of Delta.
By his conduct of droning Delta, Douglas had allowed investigators to dig deep into his personal and professional correspondence and to mine it leading to evidence of impropriety including the manufacturing of evidence over the ‘salvage lien’. Privilege over these and other matters had been waived.
OF SKI RESORTS CALL GIRLS AND IMPERMISSABLE OUT OF COURT WHISPERS
Francis Douglas KC has a long history of indulging himself in women, ski holidays, expensive wine, food and art works (buying insignificant works of art of little value as a tax avoidance tool). His former wife Sigrund Baldvinsdottir attested to much of his unsavory lifestyle in correspondence sent to Silvana Perovich in the mistaken belief she was the solicitor at Delta with conduct of the Douglas-Baldvinsdottir family dispute.
In doing what he did using Silvana Perovich to engage in what was unquestionably unlawful, Francis Douglas lifted any cover of privilege over documents he brought into existence with his juniors and other parties associated with him in the Mango Hill Litigation and other matters associated with it.
THE SOCIETY AND THE QLSC
In an intricate dance of political and professional accountability, the Queensland Law Society,the Legal Services Commissions of NSW and Queensland and the office of the Attorney General of the state of Queensland’s silence on a matter as outrageous and serious as the theft of $20 million by a group of lawyers is beginning to raise eyebrows.
Amidst a tumultuous year of investigations- matters which the Society and LSC’s of Queensland and NSW have delayed or refused to investigate- their conspicuous absence from their statutory roles speaks volumes about their part in encouraging corruption and lawlessness within the legal profession and the judiciary.
This scenario paints a picture far from the transparency promised by the Attorneys General and the regulators – the LSC, the Bar Associations and QLS- in upholding the principles of justice and oversight of professional conduct.
With a dysfunctional legal profession and an incompetent judiciary seemingly ‘on fire,’ the absence of communication from a key figure such as the Attorney General and LSC raises serious concerns about independence and integrity. In a role where public discourse on these subjects is vital, their silence is not just unusual; it’s alarming.