Suspended jail sentence for businessman

A Dublin businessman who has already served a two-week sentence for failing to comply with court orders requiring him to disclose information about large sums of money he was given to invest received another two-week sentence at the High Court yesterday.

However, the latest term was suspended for seven days to enable Thomas O'Keeffe to deal with court orders in relation to the provision of documents. In evidence yesterday, Mr O'Keeffe said his business was "finished entirely" as a result of publicity surrounding the legal proceedings.

Mr O'Keeffe said he had had a very substantial business in trading in commodities and in buying and selling securities and shares.

Earlier this month, he spent two weeks in jail for contempt of court for failing to comply with orders directing him to provide information about monies he was given to invest. He has also been ordered to provide lawyers representing a number of investors with information about his assets and bank accounts.

On May 16th, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, gave Mr O'Keeffe more time to comply with orders requiring him to give information about some $5 million (€5.36 million) which a US businessman, Mr John O'Neill, had given to him to invest.

At the start of the case yesterday, Mr O'Keeffe, with an address at The Sweepstakes, Ballsbridge, Dublin, asked if the hearing was likely to be of some duration. He said he was feeling "rather unwell" and had missed three hospital appointments. He could make an appointment fairly urgently when he knew how long the proceedings might take.

Mr O'Keeffe was then questioned about various share certificates and financial documents by Mr John Trainor SC, for Mr O'Neill, and by Mr Charles Meenan SC, representing five people claiming to have invested a total of €647,566. They are the professional golfer, Mr Des Smyth; Mr Samuel Lombard; Mr Andrew Bowen; Mr Lewis Garvey and Mr Greg McCambridge.

The court heard Mr O'Keeffe had, on Febuary 15th last, sent to London certificates for three million shares in International Cotton Co plc (ICC) and for one million shares in HTTP Technology Inc. The ICC share certificate was subsequently forwarded to Gibraltar.

After considering the evidence and submissions, Mr Justice Murphy said he should impose a prison sentence for the deliberate sending of a share certificate out of the jurisdiction. That was a matter not already the subject of a penalty but was a fresh matter.

Imposing a new two-week sentence which he suspended until Thursday next, the judge said he was doing so to allow Mr O'Keeffe time to deal with orders that had been before the court. He wanted a narrative explaining the instructions Mr O'Keeffe had been given by the plaintiffs, in whose names the monies were held and where the securities were now. A complete narrative was required, he stressed.