EX-LAWYER David Rasif had tried to abscond with about $11.3 million in cash, gold and diamonds in 2006 but failed to get away with a big chunk of the loot.

A district court heard yesterday that the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) was able to recover $6.4 million in cash and gold here and abroad.

Lawyers involved told The Straits Times that police were able to track down the transfers of large sums of money from accounts operated by Rasif.

The bank accounts in Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam that received the sums were then frozen and the slow work of releasing the money began, they said.

Police also seized 40 of the 47 gold bars that Rasif, then 43, had bought for $1.65 million in June 2006.

A disposal inquiry will now be held on Sept 20 for the court to decide on the rightful owners of the proceeds recovered.

The biggest claimant for the recovered money is American couple Mr George Raymond Zage III and his wife Kaori Kathleen, represented by lawyer Toh Wei Yi. The husband and wife entrusted $11 million to Rasif's firm for the purchase of a property and lost all of it.

Mr RS Bajwa is acting for an Indonesian couple who lost $445,000 while Mr Nigel Pereira is representing the Law Society which has taken over the clients' accounts of Rasif's defunct law firm.

Rasif, who is sought by police for criminal breach of trust, is on Interpol's wanted list.

This article was first published in The New Paper.