Posted by A recent news article reported that the Ace Attorney, France’s top lawyer, is being investigated for financial fraud. The details were provided by his former business partners who accuse him of money laundering. Godot has always denied any wrongdoing. The government is trying to determine if he broke any laws by accepting money to represent clients as his business gained more success. If true, this would be an example of greed and bad business practices leading to corruption.
Many lawyers have become millionaires solely through the representation of a single case. This may not necessarily be unethical. But, they should never do it on a regular basis. Like Godot, many lawyers use their position to enrich themselves at other people’s expense.
What exactly happened? There is no concrete evidence, but Godot’s former business partners claim that he started an agreement with them to act as his legal counsel. The lawyer then started working on their cases full-time and didn’t reveal how much he would be paid or when he would receive his payment. Some of the attorneys started to suspect something fishy and began questioning Godot about his work. They say that he initially told them that he would discuss the matter with his client, but did not follow up.
He then started to get suspicious and started to file documents that indicated he had received payment for work he never did. He also produced letters from former clients that indicated he was being paid for work he didn’t do. He finally went to the police. The investigation turned out to be fruitless, the French court found him not guilty of any fraud charges, and he was promptly released. He was also fined a considerable amount of money by the French court.
The lawyer says he will appeal the ruling and is hoping to make an example of this kind of cheating lawyers. This is not the first time he has been accused of money laundering or other criminal charges. He has previously represented a company that was under investigation for money laundering. A few weeks after he started practicing law, a member of the general public found some discrepancies in the accounts of an accounting firm.
He was questioned by customs officials and cleared of all charges. The public has not yet been able to draw conclusions on how much money might have been spent fraudulently by Godot. There have also been questions raised as to how he could represent such a fraudulent firm, which at the time of this writing is only practicing in France.