Alerts
Warning: Correspondence misusing the names of Sanjay Kohli and Family Defence Law Ltd
11 October 2022
Correspondence misusing the names of Sanjay Kohli and Family Defence Law Ltd relating to a provision of services transaction.
What is the scam?
The SRA has seen an email sent to a member of the public that falsely claims to be from 'Family Defence Law Ltd'. The email states that a lawyer 'Miroslav Sukhanov' has been assigned to the recipient and will initiate the legal procedure for 'challenging the ownership of the transactions'. The email misuses the details of a genuine firm of solicitors (see below) and the SRA identification number of a deceased solicitor.
The email was sent from the email address of 'support@family-defence.com'.
The SRA has also seen a provision of services contract in Russian that misuses the name of a genuine solicitor and details of a genuine firm of solicitors (see below)
The SRA does not authorise or regulate a genuine solicitor called 'Miroslav Sukhanov'.
Any business or transactions through the email address of 'support@family-defence.com' is not undertaken by a solicitors’ practice or an individual authorised and regulated by the SRA.
Is there a genuine firm or person?
The SRA authorises and regulates a genuine firm of solicitors called Family Defence Law Ltd of 5 Malden Road, London, NW5 3HS, England. Its Company Registration Number is 7234617.
The genuine email address for Family Defence Law Ltd is sanjay@familydefence.co.uk.
The SRA authorises and regulates a genuine Sanjay Kohli who is a director at Family Defence Law Ltd.
The genuine Family Defence Law Ltd and Sanjay Kohli have confirmed they do not have any connection to the correspondence referred to in the above alert.
What should I do?
When a firm's or individual's identity has been copied exactly (or cloned), due diligence is necessary. If you receive correspondence claiming to be from the above firm(s) or individual(s), or information of a similar nature to that described, you should conduct your own due diligence by checking the authenticity of the correspondence by contacting the law firm directly by reliable and established means. You can contact the SRA to find out if individuals or firms are regulated and authorised by the SRA and verify an individual's or firm's practising details. Other verification methods, such as checking public records (e.g. telephone directories and company records) may be required in other circumstances.
More information
Updated: 19 October 2022
The SRA understands that the above scam is still in operation.
The SRA has been notified that an individual claiming to be called 'Asel Lee' has contacted a member of the public purporting to be a 'lawyer' from Family Defence Law Ltd in relation to a crypto currency transaction.
The SRA has seen further documents in Russian misusing the name, 'stamp' and address of a genuine firm of solicitors (see the alert above for details).
The document also misuses the name of a genuine solicitor and provides the same email address listed in the alert above.
The SRA does not authorise or regulate a solicitor called 'Asel Lee'.
The genuine Family Defence Law Ltd has confirmed it has no connection to 'Asel Lee' or the documents referred to above.