Athena Razos fronts court for swindling law firm of nearly $1.6m

A Melbourne paralegal with prior convictions for theft and fraud stole nearly $1.6m from a law firm over four years and used the money to build a house

Disgraced paralegal Athena Razos has gone to jail for stealing nearly $1.6m from her employer over four years to build a house in Melbourne’s east.

A disgraced paralegal who embezzled nearly $1.6m in more than 100 fraudulent transactions from a leading national law firm used the money to build a house in Melbourne’s east.

Athena Razos, appeared in the County Court via video link on Friday where she was jailed for more than five years having earlier pleaded guilty to 16 charges of obtaining property and financial advantage by deception.

She stole $1.56m from Moray & Agnew from 2013 to 2017 by exploiting her position and knowledge of the firm’s accounting processes to carry out more than 100 fraudulent transactions.

The 59-year-old was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, with a minimum non-parole of two years and nine months.

It emerged during sentencing that before joining Moray & Agnew, Razos had prior convictions for theft and fraud, including theft from a law practice where she used to work.

Razos made 118 payments over the four years from her employer’s trust fund into accounts to pay for builders and other construction companies working on her house in Boxhill.

Following her sentence, the Victorian Legal Services Board + Commissioner issued a warning for law practices to carry out proper background checks on the nonlegal staff they hire and to provide them with ongoing supervision or risk losing clients’ money.

Razos made 118 payments over the four years from her employer’s trust fund into accounts to pay for builders and other construction companies working on the Box Hill South property.

The embezzlement was discovered by Moray & Agnew in August 2017 and Razos was sacked two months later.

After an internal investigation, Razos repaid $1.1m and struck a deal with the firm to repay a further sum of about $330,000 once she has obtained funds from the sale of the Box Hill South house which had been restrained.

The $1.1m repayment was completed before she was criminally charged.

Judge John Kelly said he was prepared to reduce Razos sentence slightly due to her poor mental health and noted her prospects of rehabilitation was somewhat guarded.

Her fall from grace has been complete and she could not practice as a paralegal which was as a direct result of her offending, the judge said.

Judge Kelly said Razos’ fraud was a wholesale breach of her employer’s trust and that previous convictions for similar behaviour did not deter her from offending again.

Acting Victorian Legal Services Board chief executive Matthew Anstee said it was vital that law practices carried out police checks, and most importantly reference checks from former employers before employing anyone.

It is often as simple as a phone call, and the results of not doing this can be catastrophic.

“Law practices with trust authority should never delegate their trust responsibilities, and must operate their trust accounts in line with the relevant statutory controls,” he said.