The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) will today auction a substantial property in Kenmare, Co Kerry, which was seized this year as part of an investigation into the €4.5 million estimated Irish assets of a deceased US insurance fraudster.
The assets include €3.6 million in dollars and euro on deposit in Irish bank accounts and the lakeside holiday home, to be sold today, which was owned by Matthew Wallace Schachter.
The Cab plans to give the entire proceeds of Schachter's Irish assets to the victims of his fraud. Usually the proceeds of any Cab action go into State coffers. The house, Caisleán Beag, is set on almost two acres of land. It is expected to fetch about €1 million when auctioned in the Lansdowne Arms Hotel in Kenmare at 3pm.
Schachter defrauded US and Canadian citizens and insurance companies of an estimated $24 million between 2000 and 2004 through bogus insurance firms he established in the Caribbean. He sold and renewed insurance policies and collected premiums. However, while he paid out on minor claims to bolster his credibility as a legitimate operator, he would not pay out on more substantial ones.
Those seeking substantial amounts of compensation found that they had never been insured. The companies which he operated were never federally registered and did not have the necessary capital to cover large claims.
The head of the Cab, Det Chief Supt John O'Mahoney, told the High Court in May that he believed the money on deposit here and the Kenmare property to be the proceeds of crime.
The court granted orders to the Cab freezing the assets and allowing for the sale of the property.
Under an alias, Robert Lewis Brown, Schachter incorporated two bogus companies, Tri-Continental Exchange Ltd and Combined Services Ltd, in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Both had shelf companies which were almost identical to the names of legitimate licensed companies. They took advantage of the name similarities by falsely claiming that these legitimate insurers were providing the insurance cover.
Gardaí first became aware of Schachter when contacted by the US Inland Revenue Service in March 2004 in the course of a criminal investigation it was conducting. He was found to be living here under his alias and had an Irish driving licence under the name Robert Brown.
He travelled to Canada later in 2004, where he was arrested. The following February he was extradited to Sacramento, California, where he died from cancer in October 2005, aged 59, while awaiting trial.
