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Disbarred lawyer faces 11 money laundering charges

Rohineet Sharma news
Rohineet Sharma (Inset).

Disgraced Auckland lawyer Rohineet Sharma has been identified as the man accused of laundering $600,000 in stolen funds, primarily from scam victim Tim Michalick, to finance his upmarket St Heliers home and his daughter’s private school fees.

Sharma, formerly a lawyer before being struck off in 2015 for filing false mortgage documents, allegedly used his company, Green Solar 24 Ltd, to funnel $400,000 from a Northland victim who believed he was investing in a secure term deposit.

Court records reveal that Sharma redirected $200,000 towards home construction costs and $50,000 for school fees, with further allegations tying him to another $200,000 in suspicious transactions.

Sharma, who faces 11 charges of money laundering, lost a recent legal bid to keep his identity suppressed, with the judge ruling that the public interest outweighed Sharma’s privacy claims.

Sharma’s defense argued the charges resulted from “reckless” behaviour rather than intentional fraud, asserting that publication of his name could hinder his ability to pay restitution and “damage his mental health”.

The court rejected these claims, noting a lack of detail in Sharma’s reparation proposal and dismissing his mental health concerns as unsupported.

The Northland victim, who has been campaigning for banking reform after losing his life savings, voiced his frustration over the banking sector’s accountability, accusing Kiwibank’s security of failing to detect Sharma’s alleged money laundering activities. Kiwibank defended its systems as robust but withheld further comment, citing ongoing legal proceedings.

The case on Sharma’s charges will proceed to a judge-alone trial.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. ‘Sharma’s defense argued the charges resulted from “reckless” behaviour rather than intentional fraud, asserting that publication of his name could hinder his ability to pay restitution and “damage his mental health”.
    The court rejected these claims, noting a lack of detail in Sharma’s reparation proposal…’
    A carefully drawn up reparation proposal which was also fraudulent. This man had no intention of repaying anything. So – just another grifter on the sustainable energy scam suckering an ‘investor’ who was also hoping to benefit from the sustainable energy scam.

    • Scams are becoming more prevalent and sophisticated especially with AI on the horizon
      And invariably dangle the lure of high interest rates
      Which could be a red flag indicating a Ponzi scheme
      Like Bernie Madoff
      Those who got burned were getting greedy
      The CIA among them
      The higher the interest the more risk

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