ABSTRACT
At common law, there is a duty on financial intermediaries to keep properly audited books of accounts. In preventing conflict of duties here, trusts law in many common law jurisdictions provides that culpable or innocent depletion of clients’ assets, by an intermediary (and/or any constructive trustee), will attract some equitable remedies.49 To illustrate, in Brinks Ltd v Abu-Saleh and Others,50 the defendant was a lady who had accompanied her husband on trips to Zurich, during which he laundered funds handed to him by a friend. The source of the funds was the theft, several years before, of gold bullion under the custody of Brinks Ltd. The theft had occurred because a security guard had assisted robbers to gain entry to the premises he was guarding. The argument in the case was that the lady concerned was liable to Brinks Ltd as a constructive trustee, following the principles laid down in Royal Brunei Airlines.51 The argument was that she had behaved dishonestly, and that her behaviour had assisted a breach of trust. The claim failed, on the basis that her presence on trips with her husband did not provide assistance in any relevant manner.
