THE HIGH Court yesterday gave permission to Anglo Irish Bank to sell properties and assets worth €11 million belonging to alleged fraudster Breifne O'Brien.
In addition a number of people, including friends and family, are pursuing Mr O'Brien for €18 million, which they gave him to invest on their behalf, but which he subsequently confessed he used to pay off other investors or to cover his own expenses.
Gardaí are investigating the case, which first came before the courts last December.
At that point, the High Court froze his assets and subsequently ordered that he could not reduce them below €18 million.
Yesterday its commercial arm ruled that State-owned Anglo Irish Bank could sell a number of properties, including an apartment in Paris and one in Reading, England, a car showroom in Munich, a house in Monkstown, Co Dublin, and a share of an investment fund involved in a Boston property development, to recover a €13 million debt from Mr O'Brien.
The bank lent the money to Mr O'Brien to buy the properties, which are now worth a total of €11 million. It secured its loans against the assets, giving it the right to sell them if he defaulted.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke said he would not change an order freezing Mr O'Brien's assets.
However, he pointed out that unless such an order specifically says otherwise, it cannot prevent a bank from recovering secured loans once the security was in place before the freezing order was made in the first place.
Brothers Louis and Robert Dowley of Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, who gave Mr O'Brien €3 million to invest for them, opposed Anglo's bid to vary the freezing order.
The Dowleys are part of a group, which also includes Mr O'Brien's brother-in-law, to which Mr O'Brien acted as investment adviser. He allegedly operated his scheme by using cash given him by new investors to repay existing investors.
In court last year, he estimated his liabilities at €16-€19 million, and said he used up to €4 million to fund his lifestyle, €4 million to repay "profits" to investors and other sums to fund his own businesses, a cab company and a laundry chain.
In documents opened before the High Court last December, he admitted "living a lie" for the last 10 or 15 years.
An initial seven people sought the order freezing his assets last December, and another plaintiff subsequently emerged in January. Mr O'Brien himself told the court that 11 people were involved.
Mr O'Brien is originally from Cork. Up to recently he lived with his family on the upmarket Silchester Road in Glenageary, Co Dublin, however, he now has an address in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
He and his wife, Fiona Nagle, were well known, and regularly attended charity balls and other functions.