The High Court has ordered action under proceeds of crime legislation in relation to a County Kildare home, gold and cash held in a Dublin safe deposit box, and Western Union transfers totalling €10,000. The court found the Criminal Assets Bureau had established a prima facie case that these assets were acquired with proceeds of crime. It also said further submissions were needed on mortgage payments made after the end of 2016.
In a judgment delivered on 16 November 2022, Mr Justice Alexander Owens said the evidence supported the Bureau’s beliefs concerning Ellistown, the contents of Adam Keatinge’s safe deposit box at Merrion Vaults, and the Western Union money. The Bureau’s application concerned transfers arranged at Kildare Post Office on 10 June 2016. Three €5,000 sums were intended for transmission to Amsterdam; the judgment said one was paid out by mistake and the application was confined to the remaining €10,000.
The judge found the evidence showed that Keatinge, Dario Simoes and Yazan Abu Jaber were involved in criminal plans involving cocaine in the months before the transfers. He rejected explanations from Keatinge and Simoes that the cash came from legitimate sources. Keatinge had accepted that €30,000 found in a van stopped in Northern Ireland belonged to him, but disputed that it was criminal proceeds. The court said it was not required to decide the status of that cash in this application.
The Bureau also argued that proceeds of crime funded the purchase of Beverly Lawns and Ellistown, and mortgage payments on both homes. The judge found that cash used for Beverly Lawns’ deposit and many mortgage payments, the €95,000 contribution from its sale used towards Ellistown, and cash used for Ellistown’s deposit and mortgage payments through 2016 were linked to proceeds of crime. He said the evidence did not establish that mortgage payments on Beverly Lawns from March to December 2013 came from criminal proceeds, when Veronika Saly was running FNO Promotions Ltd and company payments helped meet the instalments.
The court found the Bureau had not reasonably established that an Audi S3 or its hire purchase payments were funded by criminal proceeds. Keatinge had a legitimate income source from DJ events in Northern Ireland from 2016, and the evidence about the car’s funding was insufficient. Any remaining sale proceeds, after amounts due under the hire purchase agreement, should be returned to him.
The judge directed that orders be made under section 3(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act in relation to the Western Union transfers, the gold bars and cash at Merrion Vaults, and Ellistown. He did not set out the final terms in this judgment and said the court would hear further submissions about mortgage payments after 2016.