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16-YEAR SAGA

Inside tropical Brazil beach paradise ex-solicitor Michael Flynn fled to before being conviction of stealing €17.9m

He is now likely facing another stint behind bars after Judge Martin Nolan remanded him in custody for sentencing next month

• Published: 8:00, 24 Dec 2023

THIS is the tropical beach paradise that ex-solicitor Michael Lynn fled to in ­Brazil — before he was lifted by cops and sent to a hellhole prison there.

Following a long-running legal saga stretching across two ­continents, Lynn was this week convicted of stealing around €17.9million from six financial institutions some 16 years ago.

Dad-of-four Lynn, of Millbrook Court, Redcross, Co Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of theft in Dublin between October 23, 2006 and April 20, 2007, when he was working as a solicitor and ­property developer.

He is now likely facing another stint behind bars after Judge Martin Nolan remanded him in custody for sentencing next month.

The DPP has previously said the time Lynn spent in custody in Brazil awaiting extradition would be set against any sentence imposed here.

The Crossmolina, Co Mayo-born, solicitor fled Ireland for Portugal in 2008, before settling in a luxury pad in Pernambuco, Brazil — just metres from its sandy beach and crystal clear waters.

Lynn and wife Brid lived openly in the South American country after the pair had a child there in 2012.

He appeared safe as there was no extradition treaty between Ireland and Brazil — and because he had a child there.

However, a bilateral agreement between Brazil and Ireland was struck, leading to Lynn — whose two younger children were conceived when he was in jail — being returned home.

The former legal eagle had settled in the beachside city of Jaboatao dos Guararapes — a suburb of World Cup 2014 venue Recife, in the ­north-eastern state of Pernambuco.

His home was in the Candeias neighbourhood, nestled between the Atlantic and Olho D’Agua lagoon.

Neighbours told The Irish Sun at the time that the Irishman and his family were living in a luxurious pale yellow bungalow — complete with pool, BBQ and patio.

Residents said they found their neighbour to be modest, polite and discreet.

One said: “He would walk his dog here. We knew he was Irish but had no idea about his past. He was just taking care of his family and teaching English.”

TEACHING ENGLISH

Lynn, who practised on Dublin’s Capel Street before being struck off, made a living teaching English to local teenagers at the Britanic ­Piedade language school in the ­Piedade district.

In photos posted on the school’s website, a relaxed Lynn poses with groups of students in front of a whiteboard in a classroom.

However, that life came to a shock end when local cops acting on behalf of Interpol, swooped on him in August 2013.

Federal police had been tracking his movements for weeks at the request of gardai and knew his home address.

However, they decided to carry out the arrest when he was out shopping so as not to upset wife Brid, who is seven months pregnant with their second child, or risk causing harm to the unborn baby.

From there, he was locked up in a massively overcrowded Brazilian jail as he fought extradition, a far cry from his €5.5m mansion with private beach on Howth Head in Ireland.

Lynn told his theft trial that while in jail awaiting for a decision he saw a prisoner beheaded by other lags.

GRIM JAIL

And he said the jail where he was held was beside a dump — “a very big dump with rats so big even the cats ran away from them”.

Lynn — described by sources as a model prisoner — said that prisons in Brazil were essentially run by the inmates.

He said: “When I went in, the first three nights I was in a tiny cell shared with 30 other guys.

“That was kind of a holdover prison. You are not given any bowls to eat [from] or utensils to eat.”

Asked about prison security, he replied: “The security is as follows: there were 1,800 prisoners and 10 security guards. The prisons are run by prisoners.”

In the jail where he was detained, he said he was moved to a part of the complex where they held people who had a degree, such as “lawyers and accountants”. Certain prisoners run the prison, he said, and were given a gun and what he called “large swords”.

He told Judge Nolan: “It’s like something from Game of Thrones,” adding violence was commonplace.

He continued: “There were ­breakdowns, there were rebellions. I saw people being killed.

“I saw once a decapitation of a young man whose only sin was that he was gay. I don’t mean [being gay] was a sin but that’s how it was seen over there.

“It’s extremely macho and all that malarkey over there.”

Lynn said conjugal prison visits were allowed and the couple had two more children in Brazil.

He added: “Brazilian prisons are very difficult for everybody. Conjugal visits exist to maintain peace in what is essentially a warzone.”

LIFE IN BRAZIL

In February 2008, Lynn moved to Portugal and continued living there with his wife Brid until June 2011.

He told the court he’d first gone to Brazil in 2005 because there was a “natural business connection between Brazil and Portugal”.

He said his accountant friend in Portugal introduced him to a friend in Sao Paulo, where he lived with his wife for eight months.

Hitherto, the couple had been unable to have children despite IVF treatment, the court heard. But in Sao Paulo he said they were more fortunate and had a boy.

Lynn said they did not like to live in such a big city and so moved to Recife on the coast, where, with investors, he became involved in property. He said he got a salary from this and also earned money from teaching English.

When he was arrested, his wife was expecting again and was seven months pregnant. He resisted ­extradition, explaining: “I needed to give time for Brid to give birth.”

He said he hoped to get bail to spend time with his kids but bail was denied. Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled Lynn should be extradited in 2014. But a series of delays drew out the process.

However, the sun set on his decade-long sojourn from justice in February 2018 when he was taken from the Cotel prison he has called home for nearly five years and put on a flight to Frankfurt.

From Frankfurt, he was put on a connecting flight to Dublin.

The multi-million-euro theft trial had to be heard twice after the jury in the first trial failed to reach a verdict. Now, 16 years after the alleged crimes and after two trials, the Lynn case is finally at an end.