Ex legal eagle Lynn jailed for stealing €18m
Judge cuts term by 7.5 years for time in Brazil prison
FORMER solicitor Michael Lynn, who was found guilty of stealing just over €18 million from six financial institutions during the Celtic Tiger era, has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Sentencing Lynn yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan set a sentence of 13 years and gave Lynn seven-and-a-half years credit for time spent in prison in Brazil.
Judge Nolan accepted the time Lynn spent in prison in Brazil was “onerous” but he noted: “To some degree he could have resolved his difficulties by agreeing to come home.”
Lynn and his wife Brid Murphy, who was in court for the sentence, did not react when the sentence was handed down.
A jury found Lynn (55) guilty of 10 of the 21 counts against him following a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial last year.
The jury was unable to agree on the remaining 11 counts before the court. It was the second trial in the case after the jury in his first trial, which ran for 16 weeks in 2022, was unable to agree on any verdicts.
Lynn, from Redcross, Co Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of theft in Dublin between October 23, 2006, and April 20, 2007, when he was a solicitor and property developer.
He has been in custody since he was convicted of the 10 counts just before Christmas.
The court heard Lynn obtained multiple mortgages on the same properties in a situation where banks were unaware that other institutions were also providing finance. These properties included ‘Glenlion’, Lynn’s €5.5 million home in Howth, and multiple investment properties.
The financial institutions Lynn was found guilty of stealing from were National Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank, Bank of Scotland Ireland and Irish Nationwide Building Society.
Lynn took the stand and said the banks were aware he had multiple loans on the same properties and that this was custom and practice among bankers in Celtic Tiger Ireland.
He was extradited from Brazil in 2018 after spending four-and-a-half years in a “hellhole” prison. In the first trial, Lynn told the jury the jail was run by prisoners and he witnessed the beheading of a young gay prisoner.
As part of the extradition agreement with Brazil, he asked to be given credit for the prison time he has already served.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the single count relating to Bank of Ireland alleging Lynn stole €2.7 million.
He was convicted on a single count of stealing €508,000 from Irish Nationwide. He claimed he signed a “memo of understanding” with Irish Nationwide chief Michael Fingleton in Dublin in 2006.
The remaining charges against Lynn were dropped.
Judge Nolan ruled the total loss to the banks was in the region of €13 million.
Lynn is reportedly set to appeal his sentence and
conviction.
He could’ve resolved difficulties by coming home
JUDGE NOLAN
IN COURT YESTERDAY