A potential application for confiscation of assets possibly linked to jailed former solicitor Michael Lynn has been adjourned to March.
The adjournment of three months was sought on Monday by barrister Ellen Walsh, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), pending a decision on Lynn’s appeal against a five-and-a-half year sentence imposed on him following his conviction in late 2023.
Judge Martin Nolan, sitting at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, granted the adjournment.
The court was previously told property in Portugal worth €3 million and three bank accounts containing a total of €2.8 million are among assets possibly linked to Lynn’s crimes. A house in Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, where Lynn (55) had been living, is also among the assets being investigated.
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Under the Criminal Justice Act 1994, the court can sanction an inquiry into assets where it appears to the DPP that a person may have benefited from a crime they committed or where the assets may be connected to the offence.
The court was told assets in Portugal were frozen before Lynn was arrested after being extradited from Brazil in 2018 to face trial, for which he was granted legal aid.
Under the 1994 Act, a court can order a convicted person to pay such sums as the court thinks fit because they have been deemed to have benefited from their offending. As part of the process, the court can order the convicted person to respond to accusations about, and give reasons for, their denial that the assets are linked to their crimes.
The court was told the DPP has concerns certain property may be linked to monies believed to have been stolen by Lynn from six banks during the property boom. The house in Brittas, the court was told, is owned by a company, the officers of which “are very strongly linked” to Lynn.
The former solicitor was jailed by Judge Nolan in February 2024 for five-and-a-half years after a jury found him guilty in December 2023 of 10 out of 21 charges involving the theft of €17.5 million from six banks in 2006 and 2007. Lynn later applied to have his appeal against sentence heard before his conviction appeal.
The wider Garda inquiry into Lynn that led to the convictions involved more than €80 million. The offences involved Lynn, who became a property developer during the property boom, making multiple loan applications to banks using the same properties as collateral. The bulk of the money subject of the Garda investigation has not been recovered.
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