Thomas Byrne, where's the 52 million now?

Carawaystick

He got 12 years, so out in 9 after remission.
That's roughly 5.8 million a year. Can he just leave the country and transfer the money from/to some offshore tax haven then?
Are the cab going after him? Surely they'd have moved by now, if so? Or do the cab not go after white collar criminals

Ken.

Did he not use the money to buy property which today is worth ½ of ¾ of fück all?.

Busted Flat.

The story is yet to come out. Strange case.

Pat Mustard

I would be interested to know what was the reasoning behind pleading not guilty, considering the admissions that he made in court.

Link:

...the jury was unanimous in convicting Byrne on all counts.

Judge McCartan said the evidence was overwhelming against Byrne and that the jurors’ decision was “almost inevitable”.

Was it an argument to the effect that he was not guilty by reason of duress?

hullaballoo

I haven't followed the case closely at all but was there not a sniff of him trying to blame the banks? I'm not sure how it could be a "defence" but didn't he say the banks knew he was using his clients' assets to secure the loans?

schemingbohemia

The "strategy", if it could be called that, to his defence was that he was alleging he was co-erced into it by his former partner John Kelly, and that the Banks were mad for business and didn't perform due diligence, at one stage his counsel was claiming that the Banks should have known that the fashion houses he claimed to work for were Italian and not French as if that was relevant.

godtabh

He basically said that Kelly took all the money and that he didnt gain anything from it

huskerdu

Its a very good question,

All the houses that he transferred to his ownership have been returned.
According to the Irish Times, Anglo Irish Bank got some of their money back, as they did better due diligence than other banks, but €52M is a lot of money.
Its not clear at all where it all went.

I don't believe him that he was coerced, but I suspect that a lot of it went on pyramid type property deals with John Kelly, which have gone belly up.

He is also probably not lying when he says that some bank officials knew what he was doing, and I would love to see them being punished ( but I am not confident). But, two wrongs don't make a right, he can't use that as a defence for his wrong doing.

If he has hidden money abroad, he will be watched very carefully by CAB.
I wonder where John Kelly is now ?

benway

Doesn't quite answer the question, but KBC sued Byrne Wallace arising out of the Thomas Byrne farrago, won in the High Court, a partial win on appeal with regard to contributory negligence, will be back up before the High for quantum fairly shortly, I'd imagine.

High Court: http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2012/H120.html
Supreme Court: http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/2013/S32.html

Pat Mustard

hullaballoo wrote: »

I haven't followed the case closely at all but was there not a sniff of him trying to blame the banks? I'm not sure how it could be a "defence" but didn't he say the banks knew he was using his clients' assets to secure the loans?

schemingbohemia wrote: »

The "strategy", if it could be called that, to his defence was that he was alleging he was co-erced into it by his former partner John Kelly, and that the Banks were mad for business and didn't perform due diligence, at one stage his counsel was claiming that the Banks should have known that the fashion houses he claimed to work for were Italian and not French as if that was relevant.

I hadn't been following Byrne's travails that closely either. At the same time, it seems to me that think that a guilty plea would generally be more appropriate to a 'bold boys made me do it' excuse, plausible 'gun-to-the-head' type duress defences aside.

Byrne certainly pointed the finger at Kelly. Link:

By 2007, Mr Kelly was allegedly demanding €450,000 a week; demands, Byrne said, that drove him to alcoholism.

€450k week comes to €23.4m over a year. I don't know how long that is supposed to have been kept up, but it would certainly make a dent in €52m.

I'm guessing that a possible reason for a not guilty plea might have been that either Byrne had a belief to the effect that he wouldn't get a significant reduction in sentence for pleading not guilty, or else he had some belief that he might somehow be acquitted?