Last night we told you about the serious complaint of professional misconduct against Marcel Cardona which was sent to the General Legal Council. The Council - we are informed - this week took the decision to suspend Cardona from legal practice for a year. That decision still has to be approved by the Chief Justice.
You'll hear what Cardona has to say shortly, but first we got back to the evidence. As we told you last night - aCzechoslovakian woman, claims that Cardona took just under thirty two thousand dollars of her money - and claimed that he had to use twenty thousand to bribe authorities to release her son, Martin Muzikant. Here is the evidence she put forward:..
Now that's a very serious allegation, that Cardona as an officer of the court allegedly put in writing, that he would use a client's money to pervert the course of justice, while bribing and conspiring with a judicial officer.
So what does he have to say about it? This evening Cardona told LOVE FM that he knew nothing about the proceedings against him:
Marcel Cardona
"I was taken completely by surprise at the news report last night. To the best of my knowledge, no one had informed me that a meeting was to take place sometime this week. When is it that the media reported? On Tuesday I believe it was. No one had sent me any notification saying 'Mr Marcel you are hereby being summoned to attend a meeting of so and so where this, that and the next is going to be reviewed or whatever'. So certainly, I confirm no notification was provided to me. After a long day of trying to gather information as to what exactly took place, if anything took place. I am informed that not officially, but unofficially that perhaps a meeting did take place and at that meeting, neither myself nor the complainant were present. But yet the disciplinary committee of the Bar Association apparently may have proceeded to make certain decisions. At this point in time I can only tell you, that I am still in the waiting mode, waiting to see the exact form of the decision is or shall be."
And while he claims to have had no knowledge of the proceedings, what about the actual claim made by Martin Muzikant's mother? As you saw, she says he grossly over charged them - and also admitted to bribery. He said he knows even less about the email admitting to bribery:..
Marcel Cardona
"One of the complaints is, allegedly I may have overcharged the client for services. I want to say to you, and to be very clear, the amount of work that I have put in for that client, I am fully prepared to be able to substantiate everything that was charged to that client, everything for services. The second allegation for some email, I wish to indicate to you, at no point in time did I write any such email and I am certainly aware that, from members of my staff, neither did they write such email to anyone whatsoever. So I am convinced that, as it relates to the second issue of some email, it is a fabrication intended to injure me and I intend to challenge that."
The complaint was formally made in June of 2013 - and the documents have also been posted by the aggrieved party on the world wide web.
Again, the decision to suspend him from practice for a year has reportedly been made by the General Legal Council but only the Chief Justice can make it official. Only one attorney before this has ever been suspended.
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