US lawyer gets 30 months for $2m fraud on Wicklowman
Saturday November 21 2009
A US lawyer who aided a deception that resulted in almost $2m (€1.3m) of a Wicklow businessman's money being misappropriated was sentenced to 30 months' jail and ordered to repay nearly $3m (€2m).
Wicklow-based Kevin Phelan (55) had intended the funds to be used for the purchase of the Pennsylvania-based former headquarters of high-profile failed television cable firm Adelphia Communications.
He had intended to pay $3.4m and an additional $200,000 in commission for the building.
Mr Phelan paid a non-refundable $1m deposit and transferred almost $2m to William Bibaud, a local sales agent. Mr Bibaud then issued a cheque for nearly $2m to Massachusetts lawyer Raymond Desautels, who lodged the money to his firm's client trust account.
However, when Mr Bibaud subsequently instructed Mr Desautels to transfer the money to the First American Bank, Mr Desautels said the funds were no longer available. Mr Desautels had given almost all the $2m to an associate of his, Allen Seymour, who requested the money to fraudulently secure banking facilities.
When the money hadn't been returned to Mr Desautels, he lied, telling Mr Phelan that his own local bank hadn't wired the funds to the escrow agent.
That led to a collapse of the deal to buy the building.
Mr Seymour was subsequently arrested by the FBI at a Florida airport as he was about to depart on a private jet to Venezuela. Almost $1.4m in cash was discovered on board.
Mr Seymour was sentenced to just over four years' prison.
The court said he had also caused Mr Phelan to lose his $1m non-refundable deposit and Mr Seymour and Mr Desautels have been instructed to repay nearly $3m to Mr Phelan.
- John Mulligan
Irish Independent
