€18m fraudster Michael Lynn working at Wexford church after early release from prison

By Darragh McCann, The Wicklow People

Disgraced former solicitor Michael Lynn, who was jailed for five years and nine months for stealing €18m from six banks, has been released from prison early and is believed to be carrying out community work at a church in Co Wexford.

The Mayo man, who lives in Wicklow, was released from Shelton Abbey Open Prison in Wicklow within the last two weeks.

It is understood the once high-flying property developer was released under the Community Return Scheme, an incentivised early release programme jointly managed by the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service.

He had spent more than two and a half years in custody since December 2023.

Michael Lynn and his wife Bríd Murphy at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 2022. © COLLINS COURTS

The scheme allows qualifying, well-behaved prisoners to serve the latter part of their sentence in the community, while completing unpaid supervised community work.

Mr Lynn is believed to be working at a church in Co Wexford as part of his community work.

A prison insider confirmed Mr Lynn’s release when asked about his status. They said: “Yes, he’s now out and off the Shelton books.”

He was granted temporary release over the Christmas period last year, allowing him to spend time with his wife and family, before returning to prison to continue serving his sentence.

Since his release, he is understood to be living in a rural part of Wicklow in a secluded property.

Gardaí began investigating Mr Lynn as part of an investigation into a multi-million euro mortgage scam before he failed to appear at High Court proceedings in December 2007, as he had gone to mainland Europe.

With investigators and members of the media tracking him, he made his way to Recife in Brazil in 2011 with his wife, Brid Murphy, a former nurse from Co Clare.

The fugitive settled into the beach community by getting involved in real estate and teaching English to locals, while having two children in 2011 and 2013.

Brazilian federal police, acting on behalf of Interpol, arrested Mr Lynn in August 2013 before locking him up in Cotel, a high-security holding prison located in Abreu e Lima, near the city of Recife, where he was living.

He served more than 1,300 days in the prison, which is home to a wide range of inmates, from white-collar criminals to murderers and rapists.

Due to the lack of an extradition treaty between Ireland and Brazil, there followed a long, drawn-out battle between Mr Lynn’s legal team, the Brazilian Supreme Court and politicians.

While serving his sentence, he fathered a further two children with his wife in 2015 and 2016. Prison officials claimed they were unaware how these conceptions took place.

The Brazilian citizenship of these two children was used in a direct legal bid to block his extradition to Ireland.

Irish and Brazilian governments have discussed and initiated steps towards formalising cooperation or negotiating a bilateral treaty over the years, but a full-standing treaty has not been finalised.

On March 1, 2018, Mr Lynn was finally extradited back to Ireland, collected by gardaí, charged and brought straight to Dublin District Court, where he was denied bail.

During a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in late 2023, a jury found Mr Lynn guilty on 10 counts out of a possible 23 of stealing €18 million from six financial institutions, namely National Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank, Bank of Scotland Ireland and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

It was accepted by the jury that Mr Lynn obtained several mortgages on the same properties, while the banks were unaware that other lenders were providing financial capital between October 2006 and April 2007.

However, he testified that this was a business practice which was common among bankers during the days of the Celtic Tiger, alleging that there had been undisclosed arrangements with senior bankers.

Also during his evidence at trial, Mr Lynn insisted he did not flee to Brazil and claimed delays in his extradition were caused by translation issues.

Judge Martin Nolan said Mr Lynn’s corporate greed deserved a headline sentence of 13 years.

He then acknowledged that the evasive businessman had already survived an “onerous” four and a half years locked inside a violent Brazilian prison.

The judge said that Mr Lynn “could have resolved his difficulties by agreeing to come home” years earlier instead of running, before cutting his sentence to a final one of five and a half years.

Mr Lynn later challenged both his conviction and sentence. The Court of Appeal upheld his convictions and ultimately increased his overall sentence to five years and nine months.