Staff Reporter
THE Law Society of Namibia has been granted an urgent application in the High Court of Namibia in which it applied to prohibit local lawyer Leandri Lambert from dealing in funds in her trust accounts after N$4.3 million of clients’ money was allegedly unaccounted for.
In her judgement, High Court Judge Eileen Rakow ordered that the first respondent (Lambert) is temporarily prohibited from operating in any way on her trust accounts, which include a First National Bank of Namibia account and a Nedbank Namibia account.
She added that the Director of the Law Society of Namibia, Neliswa Tjahikika, be temporarily appointed as the curator bonis to administer the above-mentioned accounts.
Giving a background on the matter in an affidavit, Neliswa Tjahikika, Director of the Law Society of Namibia, explained that on 18 July 2024, Abed Shipoke, the compliance manager of the applicant (the Law Society of Namibia), performed a compliance inspection at the law firm Leandri Lambert Legal Practitioners, the first respondent.
“During this inspection, it came to the attention of Mr Shipoke that there was a significant trust deficit on the trust bank accounts of the first respondent. Mr Shipoke asked for delivery of the complete books of account. On 24 July 2024, the books of account of the first respondent in Excel format as at 30 June 2024 were delivered by the first respondent. These books of account indicated that the deficit on the First National Bank trust account was N$4,333,522.28. The deficit on the Nedbank trust account was N$15,200.00. The total combined deficit on the two accounts amounted to N$4,348,722.28,” Tjahikika said.
She added that on 22 August 2024, Shipoke met with the first respondent and Mr De Jager of CR Van Wyk & Co to discuss the scope of the audit to take place and the way forward to resolve the deficit on trust.
“It was agreed that CR Van Wyk & Co would perform two audits, one covering the period 1 March 2023 to 31 August 2023 and the other covering the period from the inception of the firm to 28 February 2023. The audit report covering the 18-month period until 31 August 2024 was to be submitted by 30 September 2024. The first respondent was to provide an extension request to the applicant to allow her to submit the audit report outside of the time limit set by Rule 20 (5)(a) of the Rules of the applicant. At this meeting, the applicant noted that the signature on the Legal Practitioners Annual Statement on Trust Accounts, which forms part of the audit report, was not hers. She did, however, not explain how it was possible that anybody could have forged her signature on the document. She also did not explain where the correctly completed and signed report was,” Tjahikika said.
She added that on 22 November 2024, audit reports prepared by CR Van Wyk & Co for the periods ending February 2024 and August 2024 were submitted.
“The findings on the audit report relate to the usage of trust money for personal expenses in the year 2022. The report further recorded payments in the years 2023 and 2024 of expenses not relating to trust creditors. Similarly, payments were made in 2024 which could not be allocated to trust creditors. These transactions resulted in a trust debit in the amount of N$583,834.00,” Tjahikika said.
She added that on 1 January 2025, the Law Society of Namibia placed a hold on the trust accounts of Lambert by means of a letter. “To the best of my knowledge, the first respondent closed her offices. She was not issued with a fidelity fund certificate due to not being able to provide the applicant with updated books of account, and she is thus not entitled to practise,” Tjahikika said.
