The U.K. Solicitors Regulation Authority has banned a former employee at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's London office after it found that he had been involved in a procurement fraud scheme with three of the firm's suppliers.

Paul Sydney Fitzsimmons, a facilities and services manager who left the U.S. firm's London office in August 2018, was issued with a Section 43 order by the regulator after it found that he had acted dishonestly.

The order, which was published on the SRA's website on Thursday, means that Fitzsimmons will need the SRA's permission to work within the legal industry in future.

Fitzsimmons current employment status is unknown, according to the SRA.

Last month, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) took away a Capsticks lawyer's right to practise and ordered her to pay £10,000 in costs after she lost a briefcase containing sensitive SRA documents and lied about them being at her home.

The lawyer has now launched an appeal against her conviction at the U.K. high court appeal against her conviction, and has started a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to cover potential legal costs of the appeal and costs ordered by the SDT.

A spokesperson at Cleary said: "The Firm uncovered the matter as part of its monitoring and oversight processes and immediately reported it to the police and the SRA. There is an ongoing criminal investigation so it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."