The Repeat Offender: How Status Anxiety Drove a Disgraced Lawyer Back to Financial Crime

When professional disgrace collides with lifestyle pressure, the result can be a dangerous return to the very behaviours that destroyed a career in the first place

Some criminals learn from their mistakes. Others simply become more sophisticated in their deception.

Rohineet Sharma belongs firmly in the second category. The 55-year-old former Auckland lawyer, struck off in 2015 for falsifying mortgage documents, now faces 11 money laundering charges involving over NZ$400,000 stolen from investment scam victims.

But this isn't just another tale of professional misconduct. Sharma's case reveals something far more troubling: how status anxiety and lifestyle maintenance can drive previously disgraced professionals back into financial crime, often with even more devastating consequences than their original offences.

For AML professionals, Sharma's journey from respected lawyer to repeat financial criminal offers crucial insights into the psychology of recidivism, the dangers of unresolved status pressure, and why professional rehabilitation requires more than simply removing someone from practice.

The First Fall: Setting the Stage for Repeat Offending

Understanding Sharma's current predicament requires examining his original downfall in 2015. His first conviction wasn't for a momentary lapse of judgement—it was for systematic deception involving multiple false documents and deliberate bank fraud.

To finance his purchase of commercial property, Sharma needed a first mortgage registered against another property he owned. Without authority, he discharged an existing mortgage to another lender on that property, submitted a false solicitor's certificate to the new lending institution, and filed a false discharge of mortgage certificate with Landonline.

The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal struck him off, with Law Society President Chris Moore emphasising that "honesty and integrity are underpinning virtues of the legal profession which must be upheld."

This original offence reveals the psychological foundations of Sharma's current charges. His 2015 conviction wasn't driven by sudden financial desperation—it was motivated by investment ambition and property acquisition goals that his legitimate income couldn't support. The willingness to manipulate professional documents for personal financial gain demonstrated a fundamental disregard for professional ethics when they conflicted with personal objectives.

Most tellingly, Sharma's defence team argued in both cases that his conduct was "reckless" rather than deliberately criminal. This consistent narrative suggests an inability or unwillingness to acknowledge the calculated nature of his deceptions, creating psychological conditions that enable repeat offending.

The Investment Scam: When Respectability Enables Criminal Exploitation

Sharma's alleged money laundering involves a particularly sophisticated investment fraud that targeted Tim Michalick, a 44-year-old luxury yacht captain from Northland who lost his life savings to what he believed was a legitimate HSBC term deposit investment.