The fugitive lawyer, Mr David Rasif, is a wanted man after absconding with $12 million in clients' funds. -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM

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THE High Court on Monday issued a warrant of arrest against a friend of David Rasif who had helped the fugitive lawyer move $985,000 to Vietnam.

The development came at the end of a hearing into a multi-million dollar civil suit brought by an American couple to recover some of the $10.7 million they had entrusted to Rasif's firm to buy a house.

Rasif, last seen in Bangkok in June 2006, is a wanted man after absconding with $12 million in clients' funds.

The defendants include a high-end jewellery store where Rasif went on a $2 million shopping spree as well as pub owner Freddy Lim Soon Kiang, his long-time friend.

When the trial began in June last year, the court heard that Mr Lim had opened a bank account in Ho Chi Minh City.

He helped Rasif move US$620,000 - the equivalent of S$985,180 at the time - from the clients' account of his law firm to the Vietnam account.

Mr Lim claimed that Rasif had spun a story that he was about to receive a sum of money from London but wanted to evade the tax he would have to pay if the funds were deposited in a Singapore bank.

But since November, lawyers for the American couple have not been able to contact Mr Lim.

The lawyers later found out that Mr Lim sold off his Boat Quay pub in September.

This was in breach of a Mareva injunction taken out against Mr Lim and other defendants last June to freeze their assets.

Last week, the couple's lawyers from Harry Elias Partnership applied for committal proceedings against Mr Lim, effectively to punish him for breaking the court order.

The hearing was adjourned to Monday. Mr Lim did not turn up.

In applying for a warrant for his arrest, the couple?s lawyer, Ms Melanie Ho, read out a letter that Mr Lim had sent to the new owners of the pub.

The letter was received earlier this month. Among other things, Mr Lim wrote: 'Too much pressure for me that I have to run away from it all. Sorry.'

The case has been adjourned to Feb 29 for both sides to file and exchange closing submissions.