Michael Lynn tells €27m thef t trial: ‘I didn’t f lee to Brazil’
He denies extradition ‘interference’
MICHAEL Lynn has denied ‘fleeing’ to Brazil to avoid prosecution, his multi-million-euro theft trial has heard.
The former solicitor also defended his decision not to ‘reveal his hand’ about alleged secret deals he had with senior bankers.
He told the court he gave what he described as €5,000 to €10,000 ‘spending money/ bonus’ to senior bankers whom he took on trips abroad, including former Irish Nationwide chief executive Michael Fingleton.
The court heard that, since 2018, Mr Lynn has sworn 19 affidavits seeking access to the servers from his development company, Kendar Holdings.
The court heard there was no reference in these affidavits to emails with senior bankers. ‘My legal advice was I was not to reveal my hand,’ Mr Lynn said. ‘I’m entitled to defend myself.’
Under cross-examination yesterday, Mr Lynn, 53, defended the extradition process from
Brazil that took four years, saying he did not ‘flee’ to Brazil and that translation issues were the cause of the delay. He said he had waited a long time to tell his story and that he couldn’t resolve diplomatic issues when he was ‘under gunpoint in a hellhole prison in Brazil’.
Mr Lynn agreed with prosecuting counsel Patrick McGrath that these matters first came to light in 2007 and that he chose to absent himself from a High Court hearing about them.
‘In 2007, you went to London first and then to Portugal,’ Mr McGrath said. ‘Correct,’ Mr Lynn replied. Mr McGrath put it to Mr Lynn that, while living in Portugal between 2008 and 2011, he refused to meet gardaí. ‘Before they came to interview you, you fled to Brazil,’ he said.
‘I didn’t flee to Brazil,’ Mr Lynn replied. He said he was ‘living in Brazil at that time and I didn’t flee to Brazil’. The court has heard Mr Lynn lived in Brazil from 2011 to 2018, when he was extradited to Ireland. ‘For four years, you resisted the attempt by the Irish State to have you returned to Ireland to face these charges,’ Mr McGrath said.
Mr Lynn replied that he initially resisted because his wife was pregnant and there was then an ongoing issue with the translation of documents. ‘So the fault does not just lie with Michael Lynn,’ Mr Lynn said.
He told the court that he agreed to surrender himself to Ireland in 2016 if certain documents could be obtained. He said his solicitor tried to get the correct documents.
‘I can’t reach out to resolve diplomatic matters when I’m under gunpoint in a hellhole prison in Brazil,’ he said.
Mr McGrath responded: ‘At any point in this hellhole prison you could have said: “I’m going back to Ireland to resolve these matters.”’ The prosecution said the ‘bureaucratic quagmire of translating documents’ was all part of Mr Lynn’s resistance to the extradition. ‘Incorrect,’ Mr Lynn replied. Mr McGrath told the court that Mr Lynn underwent a judicial review proceeding in Ireland ‘trying to interfere with the extradition’ on the basis that the Irish State had misled the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Mr Lynn said he would not say ‘interfere’. He said it was ‘all about the translation’ issue and that it was important to note that he had volunteered to return to Ireland at that stage.
He agreed that he arrived in Ireland escorted by gardaí in February 2018 and that he was given the book of evidence within ten days to two weeks.
Mr McGrath put it to Mr Lynn that, in his direct evidence, he
‘Gunpoint in a hellhole prison’ ‘Knew exactly what case was’
had suggested that the trial had come ‘too early’ for him to properly defend it. Mr Lynn replied that he would say it was too early for his legal team.
The court heard Mr Lynn has had five different legal teams for this case. ‘You knew exactly what the case was against you then [in 2018],’ Mr McGrath said. Mr Lynn agreed.
Mr Lynn, of Millbrook Court, Red Cross, Co. Wicklow, denies 21 counts of theft, amounting to around €27million, from seven financial institutions, between October 23, 2006 and April 20, 2007. The trial continues at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.