Welcome to the wild wild west.
Pragnesh Modhwadia, the owner of Axion Ince who is alleged to have taken £66 million from his firm’s client account, parties hard, RollOnFriday can confirm.
In videos passed to ROF, the Modman, whose alleged actions may yet result in a £500 bill for everyone with a practising certificate in England and Wales, can be seen swigging champagne from the bottle and feeding it generously to another guest.
The footage was shot at an Axiom party prior to his takeover of Ince Gordon Dadds - a takeover employees subsequently learned had been funded by raiding Axiom's client account.
Videos were also shared of a second wild party at Reign nightclub in London, which Modhwadia hired out in July to celebrate the Ince acquisition. It's not know whether client cash funded the lavish night out, too, for which Modhwadia flew in Ince staff from offices around the globe.
Shortly after the party, the SRA visited Axiom Ince's offices to check over the acquisition and discovered irregularities which led to the suspension of Modhwadia in August.
No expense appears to have been spared: Reign sells the Dom Perignon which Modhwadia can be seen glugging for a cool £2,300 per bottle, so hopefully he didn't indulge at Ince's welcome party, too.
In the clip he dances to California Love by 2Pac as the rapper delivers the fitting lyrics, “Now let me welcome everybody to the Wild Wild West, A state that's untouchable like Eliot Ness”.
This clip alone should have fast-tracked an intervention.
Eliot Ness, or rather the Serious Fraud Office, is now investigating claims that Modhwadia and his accomplices raided Axiom's coffers to buy up firms and build a property empire.
A second clip shows half a dozen scantily clad female Reign staff waving flaming bottles of spirits against a background of screens bearing the legend ‘AXIOM MOFOS’, which is presumably a reference to the firm being full of ‘motherfuckers’ rather than the declaration of an intention to merge with Morrison & Foerster.
A party with a £66m hangover.
In a third clip, classical music plays as a merry patriot waves a Union Jack and the screens read “Axiom Ince & Co WELCOME”. (A commenter points out it's not classical music - it's the theme of The Godfather...)
Wheels already coming off.
Several of the party’s guests have now been arrested. Their purported identities, which the SFO declined to confirm to ROF, indicate that its investigation has taken in the finance, IT, secretarial and governance functions of Axiom Ince.
Comments
23
9
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
24
6
Based on the videos, he does seem to have a bad taste (despite his personal fortune of £66m) .... And no f*** way I pay £500 for these champagne bottles
28
8
Where’s the video of the drunk INCE CFO getting into a fight.
22
8
I just want to say this again... THE SRA ARE A JOKE.
If they attempt to come after the whole profession for £1000, I think it may be their downfall.
22
6
Where was the party welcoming Plexus ey? or did their insurance teams not approve the risk assessments?
24
9
£2,300 per bottle of client money.
If this guy doesn't end up spending a decade or so in jail, there is no justice in the world.
21
9
Can we be sure that it is Champagne in the bottle?
Look closely and ask yourself, are you truly certain that the colleague immediately to Mr Modhwadia's right did not tamper with the contents of that vessel by regurgitating the contents of her own stomach - filled with hallucinogenic toxins - into it while pretending to drink, thereby poisoning her Managing Partner's mind and causing him to travel back in time to commit immense and out of character acts of dishonesty that then lead to his downfall on his return to the present day?
Can we be sure? Hmmmmmmm?
20
7
There is no way solicitors are going to pay the £500 even if we have to sue the SRA (which is owned by the Law Society by the way). The SRA has the right to impose a £5m cap on claims for a start. Secondly if Ince etc were bought with stolen money then surely we can trace some of that cash back from Ince partners, their houses, cars etc before we even go near taking money from every solicitor in England and Wales.
His party looks dreadful to me but were it not funded with stolen money then it is up to them what kind of party they have. Greed is at the heart of that and I include in that long standing firms whose current partners wanted to make personal money from a one off sale.
19
6
That's not just any "classical music" playing in the background, Jamie.
It's the theme to The Godfather!!
22
5
Every single former partner of Ince who agreed a deal with this obvious fraud should be held accountable.
18
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The music is from the Godfather
19
6
Holy smokes, those videos are a giga-awkward cringe-fest.
As an ex-plexus bod, suddenly I don’t mind not having been invited.
23
5
One can only hope the SRA learn from this and pay more attention to what is going on if they wish to retain any credibility. For example the Wombles.
17
9
Appalling clip ! Astounding none of the partners objected if only in the grounds of bad taste - but then again they seem to lack moral compass & regard for the law in the first place .
22
7
You call people behaving like this solicitors?
21
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ANO 11.31
The videos are mortifying for anyone involved with this c@ckwomble, but are you really suggesting that once you qualify as a solicitor you must never go to a nightclub, dance or drink champagne?
19
3
If you Google this club (laptop/PC browser only - doesn't work on a mobile), then the official website is the first result. Four sub-links to are offered to sections of the website. The last of these is "FAQ". Directly underneath that, it says:-
"What are the three factors that influence birth defects..."
I am posting this glitch in the Matrix with absolutely no comment whatsoever of any kind.
24
4
I will not pay one penny to cover the cost of this utter shit show. The SRA allowed this to happen and I will not be held accountable for its gross negligence and incompetence.
18
6
Where all the head honchos of Ince Shipping who are suddenly very quiet. Julian Clarke isn’t singing anymore either.
17
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Not when you’re paying for it with client monies.
17
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We are sailing …. We are sailing ….
Oops there’s an iceberg.
https://youtu.be/62Rhh7bQ02w
18
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There may be one person in those videos who knew what was going on (one of the Pragnificent Seven), but not the others. Some of them believed in celebrating the Ince purchase because it was going to propel the firm forward. There are a lot of innocents taking unfair flack here
22
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@Appalled 24 November 23 11:23
Many partners did object. One or two even raised grievances. Not that it matters now. Prags was the 100% shareholder. It wasn't a partnership. "Partner" was a meaningless honorific. Even if you were also a board director it seems.
19
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@Anonymous 24 November 23 10:32
The board of The Ince Group Plc and Quantuma (the administrators) as the owners of Ince Gordon Dadds LLP (in administration) agreed the deal. Not the partners.
20
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It might be time to give the names of those arrested to date. Uncertainty cannot assist former Axiom Ince employees/directors who jumped ship in recent months. If those arrested include former direcors/partners in Axiom then surely the profession is entitled to know? Given that this appears to be the biggest fraud in recent UK history there has to be greater transparency from the SRA and the SFO.
21
4
Hilarious videos.
The awful dancing like a rude boy. The necking of champagne from the bottle and feeding it to a woman. 2Pac gangsta music in the background. Hired young women pretending to enjoy themselves in scantily clad clothes.
To top it all off...
The MOFO for motherfuckers and then the Godfather music.
It's like a teenage boys dream from watching Scarface for the first time.
18
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We all know certain partners were paid by Pragnesh. Let’s not name them because they like to send threatening legal letters out at the mere hint of their name [x] cough cough cough [y]. And all the partners walked away happy when their huge tax bills were paid tk hmrc [...]
20
3
Oh look another picture of Pragster baby
https://www.asianwealthmag.com/articles/asian-jewish-communities-urged-share-entrepreneurial-spirit/
21
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@12:31
Indeed, but who was responsible for their tax not being paid in the first place? That's Child's play to figure out.
19
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Where’s the super amazing EA and his puppy?
19
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The only way I’ll even consider paying that £500 fee is if the SRA personally give me a happy ending
19
7
If my tax was paid with nicked money, might I have to account for that money?
20
4
If Ince "Partner's" huge tax bills were paid by Pragnesh's stolen funds from client account, surely those proceeds of crime should be recouped in any event and long before any levy is applied by the SRA on solicitors who have had nothing at al to do with the bad ship Ince
16
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@ Anon 24 November 23 13:32
You think that even if such a recoupment were possible and implemented it would make the barest dent on the £64m? How much do you think they were earning?
20
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@13:23 - I went onto the SRA's website to look at the 'Our Board' section to see which members of the SRA I'd actually want to receive a Happy Ending from.
It was a rum bunch I thought, but then I stopped looking at their mugshots and started looking at their CV's and realised quite how it was that we came to the mess that it's in.
Picking one at random, go have a look at Claire Basset, an illustrious role as a 'management trainee in the construction industry', followed by a couple of director stints at regional charities, and then it was on to a seemingly endless carousel of board positions at almost every quango in the country.
Any expertise in any of the fields those quangos oversaw? Any track record of success? Nothing on the webpage to suggest it. But hey, you had a board role at one quango so on to the next. Then the next. Then the next.
She's currently a NED at at least four quangos in addition to the hard work being put in at the SRA (where do they find the time?). Remarkably that includes a job over at the Serious Fraud Office, but apparently that experience didn't quite extend to letting her see an issue with her organisation's handling of AxiPlexInce. Which is a shame, but I'm sure the board were adding incalculable value elsewhere.
And that's just one of them... the whole set is just a pack of seemingly unqualified chancers doing one board job after another. With nobody ever seeming to pause to ask whether sitting on one quango board is really evidence of having any valuable skills or experience to bring to another. They just seem to proliferate from job to job across quango-land with no quality control in evidence.
Disband the SRA I guess. But we'll just end up with another set of identikit muppets overseeing whatever quango they come up with to replace it.
17
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You’ve got to admire the sheer chutzpah…
18
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"If Ince "Partner's" huge tax bills were paid by Pragnesh's stolen funds from client account, surely those proceeds of crime should be recouped in any event"
Recouped from who? The HMRC?
19
5
One of the clowns in the video can pay my £500
25
3
Pragnesh, please invite me to your next party! Hide the women!
22
4
Why did you blank out the other directors faces. No doubt their lawyers issued a letter. If they wanted to blanked out they should not have been there in the first place.
19
4
My favourite thing about this whole debacle is the people spending their time downvoting literally every comment on every article. “Yeah so if we keep downvoting these snarky comments this will show the SFO/Metropolitan Police and the SRA that only half a dozen people were aware that SIZTY SIX F**KING QUID was nicked and the rest of us in senior positions were completely oblivious to this”
20
6
What a schmuk! Makes me sick.
16
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@9.51 - are you saying it wasn't champagne in the bottle? Huge if true.
18
5
Easy to spot some of the main axiom directors - most now in jury O’Shea ! and still shown as Axiom Ince directors at companies house
16
8
Did I see "AXIOM MOFOS" in big letters in the background? Does this mean that they were planning to merge with Morrison Foerster?
21
3
How the hell is this piece not in jail?
20
4
So is being a solicitor like being a Lloyds Name now? Am I to understand that every time the SRA fails all solicitors may be called upon to underwrite its losses?
19
5
Honestly looks like a really boring party.
21
5
A standard bottle of champers fills six glasses - roughly one-and-a-quarter glasses for the putative £500 contribution to the bail out fund. Or maybe that £500 will effectively underwrite the tax of someone who hadn't previously paid it or even go towards the cost of running the quango that seemingly regulates little other then its own inability to regulate.
Any which way, the more that emerges about this fiasco the angrier I become.
No surprise that those arrested may include operatives from "the finance, IT, secretarial and governance functions of Axiom Inc". No way could Big Wad have ripped off £66m from the client account without accomplices who were presumably rewarded for the part they respectively played. What baffles me is why Big Wad, himself, hasn't been arrested and required to surrender his passport? Even if he is helping police with their enquiries, he should be facing a lengthy term wearing an orange suit, sewing mail-bags and must represent a flight risk.
17
6
This was tame compared to the normal Prags party - should have seen Vegas
20
4
I'm just glad he didn't waste it.
16
7
One recent Anon has put his or her finger on it. We've found ourselves to be the new Lloyd's Names, liable to our last cufflink as Lloyd's used to say. I bet not many of us knew. I acted for a luckless Lloyd's name over thirty years ago who lost everything and told myself that I'd never be so stupid. I don't think the SRA will be able to levy a bail out until every last penny that it's possible to recoup from the previous regimes and people has been recovered. It's no point them saying they didn't know the money they took or paid their tax was dirty; they received it or the benefit of it and I don't see why the rest of us should put our hands deeply in our pockets to allow them to keep it. This business is going to make or break the SRA because there are crooks out there watching to see if they can carry out a variation on it themselves. Limited liability (thank you Clementi) has put us in the position that we're all collectively on the hook for any type of that old favourite, the long firm fraud.
16
6
Fans of both teams - Ince and Axiom - should give Prag a big standing ovation.
This will be something he and Mr Petgrave can reminisce about together in HMP one day.
20
4
And every new exposure shows up the SRA for what it is. If the profession is asked to pay for this, we should refuse and apply for a judicial review.
19
6
SRA learn from mistakes . Ask BDB Pitmans what they found to cause them to bin off the wayward Wombles. Partners at Wombles should ask their board some searching questions
18
2
The SRA who take ages to investigate firms have miraculously been able to investigate and clear themselves with declarations as to them not having dropped the ball extremely quickly.
What a surprise.
18
5
Gutfreund of Salomon told Michael Lewis that the Wall St 2008 financial crisis was due to Wall St partners no longer having unlimited liability after the introduction of limited liability. No way would Wall St executives have gambled on toxic waste if their own wallets were on the line
Clementi should be asked why he pushed for limited liability for solicitors
18
2
Interesting to see the Stratton Oakmont lion used on the screens above the text ‘.welcome Axiom Ince’. The irony is strong.
19
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Wombler 24 November 23 20:59: I know! I certainly deserved jail after committing sexual harassment.
19
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@Anon 24 November 23 17:51 - and that's just Lord Lester!
22
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Lord Lester 24 November 23 15:30 - Old Mo would certainly be a good wingman for Pragnesh!
18
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@9.10 , 9.13 - what is? Why do you think Lord Lester has wings?
19
2
Dave Graham 27 November 23 15:28 Limited liability was not a product of Clementi. It has been permitted for over 30 years.
22
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BelfortJ 28 November 23 07:53: Jordan, when can I join Stratton Oakmont????!!!!
16
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Hopefully SRA reads this column. Wombles so far have earned in excess of £60 million off the back of a very controversial decision over disclosure. Given the financial gain to the firm and certain partners making that decision worth the SRA checking this out especially as it is widely regarded as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British Legal history.
16
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@6.14 - we don't know, when can you?