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Sunday World
21-07-2025
- Sunday World
Man who caused death of niece weeks after she gave birth is gangster's brother
Criminal Assets Bureau claimed that sibling was involved in massive money-laundering operation A MAN who admitted causing the death of his niece after ramming steel gates with a van is the younger brother of a Limerick gangland figure. Danny O'Donoghue (42) pleaded guilty this week to dangerous driving causing the death of 21-year-old Marguerita O'Rourke in Rathkeale just days before Christmas. He also admitted possession of a machete, making threats to kill and causing criminal damage to a van. O'Donoghue who has been in custody since his arrest last December is due to be sentenced in October. His brother John O'Donoghue is a convicted drug dealer who has also been targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau. John recently spent time in Portlaoise Prison before a conviction for a feud-related attack in Rathkeale was quashed on appeal and he was set free last year. His brother Danny appeared by video-link from the same prison this week at Limerick Circuit Court. John O'Donoghue Marguerita O'Rourke, who had her first child just three weeks earlier, had been closing steel gates to a property when Danny O'Donoghue hit the gates, killing her. The property is not far from the house where John O'Donoghue lives and which has been the target of an attempted pipe bomb attack in the past. It was also the scene of raid by the Criminal Assets Bureau. During his two years behind bars, it also emerged in a Cab case that John O'Donoghue was regarded as significant player in massive money laundering scheme. The senior investigating officer also described O'Donoghue as being 'closely associated' with Eds McCarthy, a leading figure in the McCarthy-Dundon gang. In the Cab case against a car firm, Bawn Motors, it was highlighted how O'Donoghue had 'established himself as a key figure in the international drugs trade' and has 'extensive criminal contacts with the wider Traveller community'. It was also stated he had met with Chirsty Keane, the leading member of Limerick's Keane gang at a Rathkeale pub along with one of Keane's most trusted lieutenants Dermot 'Pum' McManus. Flowers at Marguerita's funeral Since Marguerite's death family members have continued to post heartfelt tributes to the young woman expressing their huge sense of loss. Even this as news of the court case went online this week one woman commented: 'My beautiful sister you didn't deserve this l love you so much forever in my heart.' Her death last Christmas came after a number of incidents of violence in the Co Limerick town during the traditional influx of people ahead of Christmas. A house was damaged and in a shocking incident in which a BMW X5 was used to smash into property and was then set alight in November. In October a truck was used to damage a property in another incident and petrol bombs thrown at a house. Three years ago, Rathkeale saw a terrifying incident during the Christmas period in which a series of vehicles were rammed and written off. The Sunday World revealed at the time that the incident came as part of a three-way fight for dominance between criminal gangs. In a video of the aftermath a machete was visible lying on the road. Just a few weeks before Ms O'Rourke's tragic death, a man was attacked by hurley-wielding assailants and his car smashed up in the town. Marguerita O'Rourke (née Sheridan) Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 21st At one point there were plans to close a number of roads in the town as part of a garda operation did not go ahead after objections from local residents. Ms O'Rourke's funeral became a memorable as well as a huge vigil in the Co Limerick town, where balloons were released into the sky. Among the many heartfelt tributes online was one from her brother Freddy, who said at the time it had taken him days to able to put his feelings into words. He said that Christmas would never be the same, 'not just Christmas; my life will never be the same' and that she had left behind 'a very special boy.' He added that he couldn't believe he was saying 'rest in peace, our Marguerita.' Her father John paid tribute to the people who had shown such public support for the family for the daughter he described as 'a true legend.' Hundreds of family and friends turned out on Christmas at a candlelit vigil in the town on Christmas Eve. In a social media post he thanked 'the gardaí, nurses, doctors, priests, the settled people in Rathkeale, the Travelling people and everyone for their messages. 'The local shops, hotels for everything and everyone who called to my house and everyone over the world, thank you.'
Sunday World
20-07-2025
- Business
- Sunday World
Father of alleged gang boss earns thousands housing Ukrainian refugees
Coining it in: Firm that helps asylum seekers made profit of €246k and owns property valued at €420K THE father of alleged gangland figure Jonathan Gill set up a firm that has been paid hundreds of thousands of euro to house Ukranian refugees. John Gill sr later transferred his shares in Astervale Ltd to another director, but he still remains a director as well. Gill senior's Dublin address is listed on company records and is the same one that has been used by his son in various court appearances. It is also the same address given in evidence by the Criminal Assets Bureau which named Jonathan Gill as a member of an organised crime gang along with veteran gangster Paschal Kelly. According to figures published by the government Astervale was paid €414,505 from 2022 until April 2024. Documents filed with the Company Records Office show it made a profit of €246,000 in 2023 and the company owns a property worth €420,000. On the government's e-tender website the company's address in relation to a €134,505 contract was given as 'Astervale self-catering apartments' in Wicklow. Jonathan Gill claims to be a legitimate businessman Gill sr and Ian Bonny were first registered as directors in August 2022 with Gill initially owning 95 per cent of the shares. He then transferred his shares to Mr Bonny in October 2022 who has since been the 100 per cent shareholder in the company. When contacted by the Sunday World this week Mr Bonny said: 'I don't really have much interest in talking to you, sorry.' In May last year the company applied for planning permission to change the use of private house at Kildalkey, Co Meath to a guesthouse. There were several submissions from local people who objected to the proposed development in the rural area. The application as later withdrawn according to the online planning file. How the Sunday World broke IPAS boss's link to gang Last week the Sunday World revealed how another firm which has been awarded emergency accommodation contracts has links to the Drogheda gang feud. Ben O'Brien resigned in May as a director of Secure Accommodation, which has been paid €10.2 million since it was set up in September 2022. O'Brien (31) was among several people named in evidence in the 2022 Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) case against gang bosses Owen and Brendan Maguire. In April 2019, O'Brien was outside his father Derek Kavanagh's home in Hardman Gardens, Drogheda with three others when a gunman opened fire. The shooting is detailed in an affidavit lodged by Cab as part of their case against the Maguire brothers. Jonathan Gill also featured in Cab evidence in a case brought against Paschal Kelly in which it was alleged they controlled a crime gang involved in major cocaine deals, bank robberies and burglaries. Kelly is one of the county's most infamous criminals and is currently serving an 18-year sentence for a €92,000 post office robbery and 'tiger' kidnapping. Unlike Kelly, Gill has no serious criminal convictions and openly runs a mediation service where he offers to sort out disputes for a fee outside of the courts system. Jonathan Gill Gill previously told the Sunday World his company was 'very efficient' at solving disputes and has been hired by couples who are separating but want to avoid going to court. When asked what he would say to people who claim he is involved in organised crime, he answered: 'I'd say, prove it.' However, as part of the original evidence highlighting Kelly's gangland background during the '90s and 2000s, Cab described Gill as 'a close criminal associate' of the caged criminal. A massive €1.3 million haul of cocaine seized at an apartment in Donabate 20 years ago was linked to their organised crime gang, according to the Bureau. 'It is believed the drugs captured belonged to the criminal gang over which Pascal Kelly and Jonathan Gill exert substantial control.' CAB court evidence suggested that Jonathan Gill and Paschal Kelly (pictured) controlled a crime gang It was also claimed the apartment in question was being used to cut up, mix and compress cocaine and officers from Coolock found 19 kilos of the drug. Both men were later prosecuted for separate tiger kidnap robberies for which Kelly was jailed and Gill had charges against him dropped over a 2011 robbery. During one bail hearing before his trial, it was alleged by gardaí that Gill was one of 'top criminals in the country.' had been accused of kidnapping a postal worker, his partner and their 10-week-old daughter before robbing €660,000 from the man's work. He denied the charges. He was also a target for the Criminal Assets Bureau himself and a judgement for €559,000 was registered against him in 2016. In 2023 Gill had teamed up with veteran gangster Martin Foley in an apparent debt collection enterprise.
Irish Daily Mirror
18-07-2025
- Irish Daily Mirror
Kinahan bagman stalls CAB seizing home saying he can't get quantity surveyor
A convicted Kinahan bagman fighting to stave off the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) from seizing his home has pleaded that he can't get the assistance of a quantity surveyor yet as part of his case. Patrick Lawlor and his wife Leonie are contesting the CAB case against them in which their house on Collins Avenue West in Dublin is being targeted. Patrick was one of three men jailed for seven years in October 2022 following an investigation by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau into a major transnational organised crime gang which took in more than €12m in 2019 and spent €98,000 on encrypted phones in the same year. It was run by George Mitchell, the Dublin criminal known as 'the Penguin' who left the country over 25 years ago and was since targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau, who took almost three quarters of a million euro from him. At a previous High Court hearing, Ms Lawlor told the court she is still living in the family home and had filed affidavits in response to the CAB proceedings against her and her husband to seize the family home. Ms Lawlor also told the court then that her three children are grown up but she is still living in the family home and continues to pay the mortgage from legitimate income. They purchased the house in 2007. However, the CAB case centred on income generated between 2010 and 2020. 18/12/2024 - This house is on Collins Avenue West is currently owned by convicted money launderer Patrick Lawlor and his wife Leonie. (Image: Padraig O'Reilly) Judge Alexander Owens said that there is substantial value embedded in the home that is not the proceeds of crime. Last month the couple were granted legal aid for a junior counsel and a solicitor. At this week's sitting of the High Court, defence counsel for Lawlors' said they have not yet retained 'an expert witness,' and there is 'no agreement as yet.' The expert witness is a quantity surveyor to survey the property. 'They are still engaged with firms and I am suggesting an October date to allow them to engage an expert witness,' counsel said. Counsel for CAB said they are seeking a date in September to reply to the defendants' affidavits and requested the case be put into an October date for mention. Agreeing with the October date, Mr Justice Alexander Owens remarked: 'We need to get on with it.' 13/02/2025 - This is Leonie Lawlor photographed at her home at Collins Avenue West (Image: Padraig O'Reilly) None of the details of CAB's case against the couple have been opened in court. During the sentencing hearing in October 2022 for Lawlor and a taxi driver, Ross Hanway from Ashbourne, Co Meath, who was jailed for four years, Dublin Circuit Court heard that the transactions were lodged in ledgers kept by Patrick Lawlor. Lawlor received monthly cash payments of €5,000 while Hanway was initially paid €1,250, which rose to €4,000 by 2019. The court heard the men were only involved in money laundering and not in drugs. Hanway of The Beeches, Archerstown Demense, Ashbourne, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to possessing €412,000 on May 26, 2020, which was the proceeds of crime while Lawlor of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin 9 pleaded guilty to possessing €412,000 on May 26, 2020 which was the proceeds of crime. Lawlor also pleaded guilty to possession of €477,370 in cash, £6,920 Sterling, 1,940 Romanian Lei (approximately €400), 187 Ukrainian Hryvnia Lei (approximately €5) and $3,295 US Dollars. Lawlor further pleaded guilty to possession of an encrypted mobile phone. Judge Melanie Greally said 'it does not take any leap of imagination to infer' that money seized by gardaí had originated from serious criminal activity. She said both Hanway and Lawlor Sr received financial rewards for their roles in the money laundering operation. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Irish Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Supreme Court orders another hearing of challenge over fraudulent online email account scheme
The Supreme Court has ruled there should be another hearing of a Swedish man's High Court challenge over a finding that $651,000 (€557,000) held in an Irish bank account represented the proceeds of a fraudulent online email account scheme. An appeal by Harry Zeman, a director of Swedish firm Routeback Media AB, to the Court of Appeal (CoA) over the High Court decision was dismissed in 2022. A five-judge Supreme Court heard a further appeal last April and in a unanimous decision on Tuesday, with one judge dissenting in part, it allowed the appeal and ordered the case go back to the High Court so that fresh evidence could be considered. The original High Court application to have the money declared the proceeds of crime was brought by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab). READ MORE That court heard the money was collected by Routeback, trading as Local Mart, over just four days as part of a scam primarily targeting card holders in the United States. The Cab claimed Swedish police sent information regarding Mr Zeman's alleged ties to organised crime, the court also heard. The High Court ordered in 2011 that Routeback and Mr Zeman could not dispose of or deal in the asset pending further order, under Section 3.1 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996. That decision was not appealed in time and seven years later, in 2018, the Cab sought a final disposal order of the money, forfeiting it to the State, under Section 4 of the 1996 Act. At this final disposal hearing, Mr Zeman claimed procedural unfairness and that he had new evidence. The High Court ultimately made a final disposal order in 2022. The Supreme Court ruled that while a non disposal/non dealing Section 3.1 order was final in nature, there remained scope under the legislation for the respondent to raise fresh evidence but only in strictly limited and justified circumstances. It did not change the fact that litigants must present their full case at the earliest possible opportunity, it said. It said it was allowing the appeal for the case to be remitted to the High Court for a limited hearing focused solely on genuinely new evidence. The burden is on Mr Zeman to prove the assets did not derive from criminal activity or that making a disposal order would be unjust, it said. In a judgment with which Justices Gerard Hogan, Séamus Woulfe and Maurice Collins agreed, Mr Justice Peter Charleton said an unjust order should not be made where there may be claims that an uninvolved party's assets have been mixed with criminal property. Alternatively, if a respondent failed to contest the original non disposal/non dealing order due to, for instance, illness, duress or lack of awareness, but now presents tenable evidence, then such a case may raise interests of justice, he said. He also said there is no automatic right to cross-examine deponents in proceeds of crime cases. Cross-examination is under the court's oversight and is limited to issues where new evidence, with factual disputes, require it and with the focus remaining on what is necessary for an efficient and just resolution, he said. Mr Justice Collins also gave a judgment in which he agreed with Mr Justice Charleton and disposition of the appeal. Mr Justice Brian Murray agreed the appeal should be allowed, but dissented in part in a separate judgment. He outlined in nine points the proper relationship between applications made under the relevant Section 3 and 4 of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The Irish Sun
13-07-2025
- Business
- The Irish Sun
Criminal Assets Bureau searching for new HQ as expansion plan continues in bid to increase crime funds crackdown
THE Criminal Assets Bureau is working to find a new HQ as it continues to expand, we can reveal. The bureau is currently based at Walter Scott House, a building in But chiefs are currently liaising with the Office of Public Works to find new facilities for their 101 staff, Justice Minister Last week, the Cabinet backed the most substantial reform to Ireland's civil asset forfeiture laws since their inception back in 1996. One of its key parts is cutting the time frame for selling assets deemed to be the proceeds of And the CAB will get extra investigative powers, including the freezing of bank accounts that are suspected of holding dirty cash. Read more in News A bill to enact the changes will now go before the Answering a parliamentary question, O'Callaghan said: 'I am aware that the work of CAB is expanding and I am conscious that the expansion of its numbers will require further facilities. 'My department has submitted a proposal for funding for CAB accommodation. "CAB is currently liaising with the OPW to find new accommodation. The Government will continue to support the growth and expansion of CAB to recover assets for the State. MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN 'It is extremely important for criminals to know that if they stay in Ireland, their assets will be seized if it is not the case that they will be convicted and brought before the courts.' The CAB's major successes in recent years includes stripping Hutch thug James 'Mago' Gately of €600,000 worth of assets. 1 Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan said that his department has submitted a proposal for funding for CAB accommodation. Credit: Alamy
