High Court adjudicates Breifne O’Brien bankrupt

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The High Court declared Breifne O’Brien bankrupt on 25 July 2016, in a ruling by Justice Caroline Costello. His barrister, Keith Farry, said O’Brien himself had petitioned for bankruptcy. The proceedings were reported on 25 July 2016.

O’Brien had pleaded guilty to 14 sample counts at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, involving theft or making a gain or causing a loss by deception. The offences involved approximately €8.5 million over the period from 2003 to 2008.

In October 2014, Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a seven-year prison term. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal over the sentence’s length in the December before the report. He was still serving that sentence when the bankruptcy proceedings were reported.

According to the report, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court had heard two years earlier that O’Brien dishonestly persuaded five people to put millions into fictitious property ventures in Manchester, Paris and Hamburg. He also secured investment in a bogus linen shipping insurance scheme. The court heard that money from friends and acquaintances funded his own property and business investments in Ireland and abroad, including a Barbados apartment, and a car for his wife. The criminal court heard that little of the investors’ money had been recovered.

The report said O’Brien was understood to owe creditors some €40 million. Justice Caroline Costello said no additional statement of affairs was needed. She ordered him to advertise the bankruptcy adjudication on the Insolvency Service of Ireland’s website and in Iris Oifigiuil.