Ex-deputy minister Kayveas guilty of “impropriety”

PPP president-cum-lawyer M Kayveas and his wife Blanche O’Leary, a diplomat, were said to have breached the terms of entrustment as stakeholders in a RM2mil property sale.

PUTRAJAYA: Former deputy minister M.Kayveas and his diplomat wife Blanche O’Leary lost their appeal at the Federal Court here to set aside an Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board’s decision which found them guilty of misconduct and fined them RM5,000 each.

A five-member panel led by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria yesterday unanimously dismissed their appeal and upheld the board’s decision.

“The breach of the undertaking and stakeholding by the appellants (Kayveas and Blanche O’Leary) were clearly conducts in a professional capacity that amounted to grave impropriety,” said Federal Court judge Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha who delivered the judgment.

He said it was undoubted that Kayveas and Blanche, who were partners in the legal firm Blanche Kayveas & Co, were guilty of misconduct under section 94 (3) of the Legal Profession Act 1976.

Kayveas, who is also People’s Progressive Party (PPP) president and his wife, Blanche who is the High Commissioner designate to Papua New Guinea, were said to have breached the terms of entrustment as stakeholders in a RM2 million property sale and purchase transaction between two companies.

The other judges on the panel were Federal Court judges Hashim Yusoff,  Ahmad Maarop and  Hasan Lah.

In the judgment, Justice Tan disagreed with Kayveas’s contention that he was not complicit in the breach of the agreement.

He said there was not a strand of evidence that Kayveas was not complicit or was not at fault.

“In a partnership, an undertaking given by a partner in the course of practice binds all the partners. A partner remains liable on undertakings given while he was a partner, even after he has left the firm or the firm is dissolved.

“The complaint of the Bar Council was against the partners of Blanche Kayveas & Co,” said Justice Tan, adding that “no fault” was not a plausible defence to misconduct.

Ordered to pay penalty

Justice Tan said it was beyond argument that a stakeholder is a trustee and that breach of a stakeholding term was not just a breach of undertaking but also a breach of trust, adding that failure to honour an undertaking was prima facie evidence of professional misconduct.

Both Kayveas and Blanche were ordered by the board on March 17, 2005 to pay the penalty to the discipline fund.

The Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal on Dec 12, 2011.

In their submission, the couple contended among others that the Court of Appeal failed to consider that there was no element of dishonesty on their part.

Kayveas who contested the Pasir Bedamar state seat in Perak in the 13th general election, lost to DAP’s V.R.Terence Naidu by a 13,037 vote majority.

-Bernama