The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) yesterday welcomed the successful sale of a house in Co Kerry for €500,000 which had been seized by the agency as part of its investigation into the proceeds of crime by an American who was behind a $28 million insurance fraud.
Cab had obtained a High Court order in May freezing the property belonging to fraudster, the late Matthew Wallace Schacter. Yesterday, the agency put his house near Kenmare in Co Kerry up for auction and successfully sold it to a London-based property developer, James Long, for €500,000.
Cab legal officer Frank Cassidy said the €500,000 price was about what it had been hoping to secure for Caisleán Beag, a six- year-old dormer bungalow set on 2.8 acres at Cappanacush, Templenoe, Kenmare, given the number of holiday homes for sale in the area and the softening in the market.
"It was an unusual case in that the criminal involved ran an insurance fraud which garnered him close to $28 million and a lot of that money came to Ireland. I had already been appointed receiver over €2.85 million here - now with the sale of this house for €500,000, we will have secured over €3 million or close to $4 million.
"There's currently an application by the liquidators of the companies at the centre of this case to have the proceeds of the crime returned to the victims, and because of the radical legislation here we can give that money to the liquidators for distribution to the victims, so we'll be paying over close to $4 million."
The purchaser of the house, Mr Long, a native of Feoghnagh, west Limerick, said he was pleased with the outcome of the auction and intended using the house as a holiday home for his family. "I don't have any connections with Kenmare, but I like the area and it's a nice house."
Mr Long successfully bought the house when he was given the first option to negotiate for the property after he had outbid other interested parties with his bid of €450,000. Auctioneer Trevor Giles withdrew the house from the auction to allow discussions when it became apparent no further bids were forthcoming.
About 40 people attended yesterday's auction at the Lansdowne Arms Hotel in Kenmare. With prospective buyers reluctant to show their hand, bids gradually inched their way up from €350,000 with Mr Giles having to several times threaten to withdraw the property if no further bids were forthcoming.
Among those who bid was local Kenmare auctioneer Seán Daly, who had placed a bid of €440,000 on behalf of a client and he was surprised that the auction had ended after just nine minutes.
Gardaí became aware in 2004 that Mr Schacter had acquired the four-bedroomed house when they were contacted by US inland revenue and discovered that he was living here under an alias, Robert Lewis Brown.
Mr Schacter, who died aged 59 while in custody awaiting trail in California in October 2005, had incorporated two bogus companies, Tri-Continental Exchange Ltd and Combined Services Ltd in St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean.
Both had shelf companies which were almost identical to the names of legitimate licensed companies.
Through them Mr Schacter took advantage of the name similarities by falsely claiming these legitimate companies were providing insurance cover and collecting premiums.
In May, Cab obtained a freezing order on the property when Det Chief Supt John O'Mahony, who attended yesterday's auction, told the High Court that he believed that the money on deposit in Irish bank accounts and the Kenmare property were the proceeds of crime by the late Mr Schacter.