Paralegal Dominic Mak stole almost $2m from Chinese clients via bogus property deals
A shonky paralegal at a top Melbourne law firm stole almost $2 million from his Chinese clients via a bogus property racket to wheel and deal on the share market. As an investor, he made a hell of a paralegal.
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A paralegal stole almost $2 million from his Chinese clients before blowing most of it on failed share market trades.
Dominic Mak, 28, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to a minimum two years’ jail after pleading guilty to multiple fraud charges.
Mak was a property paralegal at top Melbourne law firm Nelson & Co law firm when he fleeced three Chinese clients out of $1,919,266 between September 2018 and May 2019.
Mak, who earned $65,000 a year, diverted property deal deposit cash into his bank account via five bogus transactions masked as “authorised transfers”.
Mak, fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, fabricated email chains and issued false requests for payments to his trusting victims.
Mak’s deceit was uncovered in August last year after a client contacted the firm.
Mak, who had quit the firm a month earlier after almost six years of service, was hauled in for a meeting with his ex-boss.
Mak admitted investing a client’s money but denied further offending.
The former Highvale Secondary College and Deakin Uni graduate handed himself into police the next day.
Mak, who wasn’t charged until September, gave investigators a “comprehensive statement” which included a full confession, an apology to his victims, copies of his bank statements and spread sheet of where the stolen cash went.
The court heard Mak dropped $1.2 million wheeling and dealing shares via online trading service Plus 500.
He lost more than $500,000 investing in a medical research company and lithium mine — the latter’s shares plummeting almost as soon as Mak purchased them.
Mak also admitted spending $150,000 on “personal expenses” including travel and entertainment.
The court Mak was under pressure to financially provide for his family and purchase a home for he and his wife.
Judge Michael Cahill said Mak’s offending was a “serious breach of the trust”.
“As a paralegal you enjoy a high degree of trust in the handling of large sums of clients’ moneys,” Judge Cahill said.
“It was also sophisticated, you created false emails to try to conceal your dishonesty and your offending … by the pretence you maintained when the transaction was queried was particularly brazen.”
Mak, from Glen Waverley, was jailed for a maximum of four years.
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