A FREEZING order on the accounts of alleged pyramid scheme operator Breifne O’Brien has been increased to €18 million on the application of his brother-in-law, himself a financier who is owed some €1.85 million.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday made an order which has the effect of restraining Mr O’Brien from reducing or dealing with his assets below the sum of €18 million.
Several investors have secured judgment against Mr O’Brien, of Invergarry, Silchester Road, Glenageary, Dublin, in a total amount close to that €18 million sum.
The judge was dealing with a number of applications by John Gleeson SC, for Bernard Lambilliotte, of Melbury Road, London, arising from the court’s decision earlier this month to grant an order requiring Mr O’Brien to repay Mr Lambilliotte some €1.85 million.
Mr Gleeson told the judge the €1.85 million sum had not been repaid, and he secured an order allowing enforcement of the repayment order in any EU country. To take into account the debt owed to Mr Lambilliotte, the judge also increased the accounts freezing order to €18 million from €16 million.
A solicitor representing Mr O’Brien said his client was not objecting to the freezing order being increased or to the European enforcement order. Mr O’Brien would also provide an updated statement of affairs as sought in the proceedings, he added.
The court has heard that, in an e-mail last December to his brother-in-law, Mr O’Brien had written: “My regret for what I have subjected you to does not decrease, but instead I feel nothing but increasing shame.”
Mr Lambilliotte, managing director of London investment firm Ecofin, said in an affidavit he had until December last completely trusted his brother-in-law and had “no idea that there would be any difficulty in securing repayment of these monies”.
Mr Lambilliotte said he became aware of “a potential problem over repayment” on December 10th when Mr O’Brien came to Mr Lambilliotte’s New York apartment “to inform me of the distressed situation of his financial affairs and that he would not be able to repay me” by December 12th.
The repayment order relates to monies totalling €1,858,396 lent by Mr Lambilliotte to Mr O’Brien in May and December last year. To date, Mr O’Brien has been ordered to repay sums of more than €18 million given to him for investment purposes by 10 people. His assets have been frozen in that amount and the judge has referred documents to the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
