The SFO said more than 80 of its investigators, accompanied by Metropolitan Police officers, raided locations in the South East of England this week to bring individuals in for questioning and search for potential evidence.
Axiom Ince stopped trading last month when approximately £66m in client money was found to be missing from its accounts and spent. The SFO said investigators will examine how funds passed from the firm’s client accounts with Barclays to the State Bank of India to fund these purchases.
Axiom Ince was founded in May, when law firm Axiom DWFM purchased law firm Ince Group, as it was set to enter administration. In July, Axiom Ince bought insurance law firm Plexus.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) shut Axiom Ince in October—the firm operated 14 branches in England and Wales and employed more than 1400 staff at the time.
Due to the complexity of the alleged fraud, the Metropolitan Police referred the case to the SFO; the two organisations will continue to work closely together on the investigation.
SFO director Nick Ephgrave said: ‘There are a number of significant questions that need to be answered: clients from this law firm are missing many millions of pounds and more than 1,400 of its staff have lost their jobs.
‘The impact on those affected is extremely serious. We have used our specialist powers to obtain important information that will help us get to the bottom of what happened.’
The SRA has appointed intervention agents to manage the former clients of Axiom Ince. The SFO investigation has no connection to its investigation into the Axiom Legal Financing Fund.
