A British lawyer faces jail having been found guilty of letter of credit (L/C) frauds amounting to nearly £7 million.

Deputy head of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's legal department, Kate Johns, received payments of £1.95 million for arranging the L/Cs that were used to prop up a struggling Indonesian airline.

Money transfers

Johns was convicted of 12 offences committed between May and October 2006.

In five offences, the lawyer used fraudulent L/Cs to secure money transfers totalling £6.67 million. The other offences involved the acquisition of £588,373 of criminal property.

Procedures breached

The court heard that Johns persuaded colleagues to breach bank procedures to obtain the L/Cs, ostensibly to prop up Indonesian airline, Air Efata.

The L/C proceeds finished up in accounts controlled by the head of the ailing carrier, Taira Supit, but the cash injection failed to rescue Air Efata. Supit subsequently hanged himself.

Acting on instructions

Johns, who is awaiting sentence, claimed she was acting on instructions from a senior Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi manager.

The jury was not persuaded by her claims.

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