Businessman Breifne O’Brien will be sentenced on October 8th in connection with a multi-million euro theft and deception.
He pleaded guilty to a sample of charges brought against him involving sums totalling more than ten million euro.
At the sentencing hearing today, the court heard the money was stolen from investors to pay stamp duty on new properties, an extension to his house, and a new car for his wife as well as to pay back money owed as part of a multi-million euro Ponzi scheme.
Judge Patricia Ryan requested further information on O’Brien’s efforts to reimburse victims and said she would consider her sentence in October. O’Brien (52), Kilmore, Monkstown Grove, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to 14 sample counts out of a total of 45 charges in June.
They included stealing money and dishonestly inducing people to invest in bogus shipping and insurance schemes, and also bogus property schemes in Paris, Manchester and Hamburg, between 2003 and 2008.
O’Brien convinced long standing friends from his days in Trinity College Dublin and family business associates that he was linked to property schemes in Paris, Manchester and Hamburg and a shipping insurance scheme.
The schemes were all bogus. O’Brien used fake letters and invented connections to international businessmen and lawyers to get the victims to continue to give him money.
O’Brien told the investors that the money would sit in a deposit account in order to demonstrate that he had the capacity to purchase investment properties and allow him to procure exclusive options on the properties.
Detective Sergeant Martin Griffin told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that this was a lie. He said the money was used for a myriad of other purposes instead of being held on deposit.
Some of it would be used to pay back other investors who had advanced money to O’Brien, a process the detective described as grooming.
He said: “This is absolutely quintessentially characteristic of a Ponzi scheme”.
O’Brien, whose family home is Carrigrohane Castle, Co Cork, had denied all charges, but changed his plea to guilty on the day his trial was due to start.
The deception involves five victims namely Martin O’Brien of Naas, Co Kildare, Dubliners Pat Doyle and Evan Newall, Tipperary dairy farm Louis Dowley and Daniel Maher of Foxrock, Co Dublin.
O’Brien stole €4million from Mr Dowley, with an address at Carrick-on-Suir.
He deceived Mr Doyle and Mr O’Brien of €500,000; Mr Newell of a total of about €3 million; and Mr Maher of €450,000. The deception against Mr Newell relates to the sale of lands in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
Det Sgt Griffin told the court that O’Brien knew some of the victims from his days studying economics in Trinity College Dublin. He had known many of them for over two decades and O’Brien and the victims would have attended wedding, christenings and ski holidays together over the years.
The offences took place at National Irish Bank in Stillorgan and Donnybrook as well as Ulster Bank, Donnybrook, Dublin 4. O'Brien has no previous convictions.
In May 2013, Mr O’Brien lost a High Court judicial review challenge arguing he could not get a fair trial due to adverse publicity in the print and broadcast media.
He appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the trial could proceed any time after June 2014.