8 Apr 2006

Former Fiji attorney general fined 6,000 US dollars

7:27 am on 8 April 2006

A former attorney general of Fiji has been fined 6,000 US dollars for improper handling of a client's trust funds.

The Fiji Sun reports that the Fiji Law Society imposed the fine on Apaitia Seru after it found him guilty of professional misconduct for failing to establish a trust fund and failing to account to his client for money received by him.

Mr Seru has 60 days in which to pay the fine and the costs of the Law Society disciplinary committee, failing which he can be suspended from practice.

Mr Seru was forced to resign as the attorney general of the first Rabuka government in the 1990s following a scandal over an improper government payment of 4 million US dollars to a local businessman.