HUGE HAUL | 

Michael Lynn’s hidden money: Garda raids in hunt for disgraced ex-solicitor’s secret cash

Detectives freeze bank accounts and search properties linked to convicted criminal

Today at 07:38

Gardaí are hunting for a massive money haul they believe convicted thief Michael Lynn has hidden in various locations.

Specialist detectives have carried out searches of five properties and frozen a number of bank accounts linked to the high-profile former solicitor and property developer.

The latest investigation into the 55-year-old’s hidden money is being conducted by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB), which also led last month’s successful prosecution of Lynn.

“This is all about finding assets and proceeds of crime that this individual was involved in,” a source said.

Sources said a four-figure amount of cash was seized in Tuesday’s GNECB operation, but added that this is just the “tip of the iceberg” and more searches are planned, while analysis of bank accounts and other financial transactions will continue.

The Sunday World has learned Lynn is on an “enhanced regime” in Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison, meaning he has full prisoner privileges in the overcrowded remand jail and has not run into any disciplinary issues.

He was remanded to Cloverhill on December 20 after being convicted of a massive fraud enterprise, and it is understood he has been sharing a cell with a number of inmates without any issue.

“Michael Lynn is an affable guy, there is no doubt about that,” a source said.

“It is no surprise he is getting on well in jail, after all he spent years in a ­Brazilian jail before he was eventually extradited back here.

“But what needs to be made very clear is his criminal activities and the behaviour of others like him are directly responsible for the meltdown that occurred in our economy at that time.

“He was a poster boy for greed and corruption.”

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Who is Michael Lynn?

Lynn is due to be sentenced next Monday after he was found guilty last month of 10 counts of stealing around €17.9m from six financial institutions 16 years ago.

The jury were unable to agree on the remaining 11 counts on the indictment.

Lynn, originally from Co Mayo and whose last address was 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.

It was the second trial in the case, ­after the jury in the first trial in 2022 was unable to agree on the verdicts.

It was the prosecution case that Lynn obtained multiple mortgages on the same properties in a situation where banks were unaware other institutions were also providing finance.

These properties included ­‘Glenlion’, Lynn’s €5.5m home in Howth, Co Dublin, and multiple investment properties. The financial institutions involved were Bank of Ireland, National Irish Bank, Irish Life and Permanent, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank, Bank of Scotland Ireland Ltd and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

Lynn took the stand and told his ­trial that the banks were aware he had multiple loans on the same properties and that this was custom and practice among bankers in Celtic Tiger Ireland.

The court heard from dozens of witnesses – many of them bank officials – who testified that they would never have lent the money to Lynn if they had been aware he had already taken out mortgages on the same property.

They also said they were not aware of any “off-the-book arrangements” in relation to his lending.