Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Screengrab/RTÉ
boy in brazil

Catching a fugitive: How ex-solicitor Michael Lynn stayed on the run for eight years

Facing criminal charges, he could soon be back in Ireland.

EIGHT YEARS AFTER he fled Ireland, fugitive solicitor Michael Lynn will soon be back to face criminal charges relating to debts of over €80 million.

Lynn was struck off the solicitors’ register in 2008, after the Law Society found that he had used money belonging to clients to fund his lifestyle and raised €80 million by securing multiple mortgages on the same properties.

Lynn failed to turn up at the High Court in Dublin and a warrant was issued for his arrest but the fugitive solicitor moved through a number of European countries before heading to Brazil.

He is believed to have been working as an English teacher during his time there. Himself and his wife had a Brazilian-born child and he was subsequently granted permanent residency in 2011.

Lynn was arrested in Recife in August 2013 but his extradition to Ireland had been unclear because of the lack of a formal extradition treaty between the two nations.

A legal process was put in place by the Department of Justice to secure his extradition to Ireland and Brazil’s Supreme Court agreed to that request in December 2014.

Since then, Lynn has been attempting to have some details of this extradition order clarified.

Yesterday, Brazil’s Supreme Court agreed with the original ruling, removing any legal impediment from Lynn returning to Ireland to face charges here.

Lynn has been evading the Irish legal system for over eight years but is now likely to face trial for allegedly defrauding money from clients and banks.

Read: Fugitive former solicitor Michael Lynn to be extradited from Brazil over €80m debts >

Read: Runaway solicitor Michael Lynn arrested in Brazil >