By: Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
DISGRACED solicitor Michael Lynn, who will shortly be extradited to face theft charges in Ireland, is trying to raise almost €700,000 by selling valuable land in Brazil, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The site was purchased by one of Lynn’s Brazilian firms in 2011 as the on-the-run solicitor sought to re-establish himself as a property mogul in South America.
Situated in the booming industrial town of Cabo de Santo Agostinho in northeast Brazil, Lynn planned to build 140 residential units on the circa one-acre site before he was arrested in August 2013 on foot of an extradition warrant issued here.
After fleeing the country in 2007 Lynn engaged in a complex offshore scheme which saw millions in property assets liquidated and placed in front companies in places such as Panama and the Seychelles.
Investors and banks were left out of pocket in Ireland, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria, the US and elsewhere. Lynn’sdebts to financial institutions alone amount to €80m while millions more are owed to hundreds of investors who paid for foreign apartments that were never built.
Since being detained in Brazil, Lynn has been held in Cotel prison – a notorious facility overflowing with violent offenders, drug lords, murderers and rapists. The prison is also home to an infamous Italian mafia don who, like Lynn, is facing extradition to his home country.
Lynn’s wife, Clare-born nurse Bríd Murphy, has stuck by her husband and is allowed to see him for conjugal and family visits on Wednesdays and Sundays.
To get into the prison she has to endure an open-air, overnight queue along with hundreds of Brazilian women waiting each week to see their husbands.
Lynn’s life in prison, where he claims to have contracted TB, is in sharp contrast to the luxury lifestyle he had established in Brazil. Prior to being arrested he lived in an exclusive walled villa complete with pool situated a short stroll from a golden beach where he liked to walk his beloved dogs.
READ MORE – The Secret Plot To Extradite Michael Lynn
He had also joined the Caxangá Golf and Country Club, a luxurious 63-acre hideaway where the region’s most wealthy residents stable their horses, play golf and dine in a private restaurant overlooking a pristine pool.
Now with all legal option exhausted, he will soon be brought home in handcuffs following the overruling of his final appeal in Brazil’s Supreme Court this week.
Despite his imprisonment, Lynn’s businesses have continued with his wife at the helm. Other associates – from Lynn’sformer Portuguese base in the Algarve where his once majestic hill-top villa now lies empty and overgrown having been repossessed by the banks – also continue to help.
READ MORE – Lynn’s 30k Golf Lifestyle
Together with Bríd, those associates control a local company called Quantum Assessoria e Empreendimentos – the firm which acquired Lynn’s Brazilian site for €171,971 in 2011.
In 2013 the site was revalued for tax purposes by the local municipality at almost €700,000.
The increase in value is likely explained by Lynn’s plans to build apartments on the large plot which is situated in an area undergoing an unprecedented housing boom.
According to Mark Astle – Lynn’s friend and boss at the Recife English language school where Lynn taught part time before his arrest – the Mayo man had planned to build 140 apartments on the site.
Mr Astle, who put up Bríd and the couple’s young son in his home after Michael Lynn’s arrest – also said Lynn had bought a property in a condominium development being built in a wealthy area of Recife.
READ MORE – Michael Lynn’s only interview
At the time of the land bank purchase Quantum was owned by Lynn and his wife with each holding a 50% stake.
Since his arrest, 32% of Lynn’s stake has been transferred to another local firm controlled by his Portuguese associates and 20% has been transferred to a Brazilian associate.
However Bríd, who now holds a controlling 47% stake, has put the property up for sale with an asking price in Brazil of R$3m – the equivalent of €667,886.
When contacted by the MoS, agents advertising the property said that although the price was R$3m, they would be prepared to accept as little as R$1.8m, or €400,000. Michael Lynn is expected to be returned to Ireland for trial later this year.
Postscript and Reaction
The morning this story was first published in the Irish Mail on Sunday the Irish Independent quickly followed up.
