25 May 2009

Solomon Islands lawyer being sued over allegedly missing trust funds

2:58 pm on 25 May 2009

A prominent Honiara lawyer, Charles Ashley, is facing two law suits for allegedly swindling around quarter of a million US dollars from trust funds belonging to former clients.

Solomon Islands media report that a Kolombangara landowner, Olupitu Amiki, has filed one suit against Mr Ashley after he failed to receive an amount of 130 thousand US dollars Mr Ashley had been holding in trust fund for him.

The money is from a logging operations on Mr Amiki's land in Kolombangara.

The Solomon Star reports Mr Amiki claims in papers filed before the court that he had paid more than 150 thousand dollars into the trust account.

He says after previous court cases, Mr Ashley, has only released a fraction of the full amount.

In another lawsuit a group of landowners is seeking more than a 120 thousand US dollars allegedly held in a trust fund by Mr Ashley's law firm.