Husband of British woman washed up dead on Marbella beach is ‘fugitive fraudster’
THE husband of a British woman found dead in Marbella was arrested last night over a six-figure fraud.
Paul Muldoon, 33, faces extradition over an alleged scam in which OAPs were conned into investing in dodgy ‘green energy bundles’.
A body found on a beach in the Spanish resort on Sunday was believed to be that of his wife Rebecca, a mother of two.
On New Year’s Day, Muldoon had been arrested at their penthouse flat over allegations of domestic abuse after neighbours heard shouting and screaming.
But he was released by a judge when Mrs Muldoon, 35, did not attend a hearing to give evidence against him and could not be traced. Officials confirmed Essexborn Muldoon was still in custody when his wife went missing.
Before his arrest last night, he was one of the country’s most wanted fraudsters and had been on the run for at least a year. He was detained by Spanish police after they summoned him to a meeting yesterday evening. Muldoon faces extradition to England where detectives want to speak to him about a boiler room fraud involving the supposed sale of rare earth metals five years ago.
He and a gang of accomplices are accused of promising extraordinary returns for investments in rare metal compounds used to make LEDs and lasers.
They occupied a ‘virtual office’ in Canary Wharf and used Coutts, the Queen’s bank, to give their activities an air of prestige.
But clients complained they were duped out of huge sums. One customer, an 83-year- old widow, claimed she handed over £235,000 for precious metals, diamonds and even plots of land in Brazil.
Mrs Muldoon, originally from Southend- on-Sea, is believed to have met her husband several years ago before they embarked on a life of luxury in New York, Los Angeles and Spain.
Online photos show them posing against the Manhattan skyline. Muldoon also appears in a selfie with former England boss Sam Allardyce and posted an image of Michael Douglas as the Wall Street film character Gordon Gekko. The
‘One of UK’s most wanted’
couple, who married in the US, recently settled with her two children, aged eight and 11, in Camino del Pinar – an area of Marbella popular with expats.
Mrs Muldoon was last seen on January 2, less than 24 hours after her husband had been arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse.
She spent most of the evening of New Year’s Day at a police station after officers were called by a neighbour. But she declined to press charges and failed to answer a court summons as part of a swift justice procedure. Friends circulated messages online in a bid to trace her, as relatives flew in from Essex to take care of her children.
A walker alerted the emergency services after finding a body on Oasis Beach on Sunday morning.
Spanish police said the body appears to be that of Mrs Muldoon but were waiting for forensic test results for confirmation. Sources told local media they recognised her from photos and that she was wearing the same clothes as when last seen. There were said to be ‘no signs of external violence’.
Sources at Spain’s National Police confirmed Muldoon was arrested yesterday evening on a European Arrest Warrant.
According to Crimestoppers, he was first held by British police in 2013 but released due to the ‘complexity’ of the inquiry. It added that he was summonsed last year but ‘has so far failed to appear’ at several court hearings.