A COUNTY Tyrone native who made a multimillion-dollar fortune after emigrating to the United States more than 25 years ago will report to prison in January to begin an 18-month jail term.
Seán O’Neill (49), who lives in Pennsylvania, was sentenced on Wednesday on three counts of immigration fraud, one count of tax fraud and one count of illegally possessing a firearm silencer. In addition, O’Neill has been ordered to pay almost $400,000 (€266,000) in restitution to US tax authorities and a $60,000 fine.
It represents a precipitous fall for a man who seemed to have everything just three years ago. At the apex of his success, O’Neill was estimated to be worth about $13 million. He owned 17 properties across the US and in Ireland. His fortune was built primarily on a construction business; he also owned a restaurant and bar.
Unfortunately for O’Neill, his apparently charmed life was founded on a lie. In order to receive a green card from US immigration authorities in the 1980s, he concealed that he had been convicted of membership of the IRA’s youth wing, Fianna Éireann, in the North in 1977. He now faces deportation after he has served his time in jail.
The unravelling of O’Neill’s life began in an unusual and tragic way. He was regarded as an upstanding member of his community in a prosperous area on the outskirts of Philadelphia until 2006. That year, on a night when he and his wife were away, his son, Sean jnr, held a drink-fuelled party. The son, then 17, at one point produced a pistol owned by Mr O’Neill from beneath a mattress. In the ensuing horseplay, the gun was discharged, shooting a classmate in the face. The school friend, Scott Sheridan, also 17, died from his injuries.
It was during a search related to this incident that police discovered additional firearms and documents that referred to O’Neill’s arrest in the North.
O’Neill initially faced firearms charges in state court, which were dismissed in February 2008. But federal agents raided his 14,000sq ft home in the early hours of June 27th, 2008, handcuffed him in front of his wife, and set in train the series of events that led to this week’s sentencing.
Meanwhile, another tragedy took place. In September 2008, O’Neill’s daughter, Róisín, driving on the wrong side of the road and with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, crashed into a vehicle driven by a 63-year-old grandmother, Patricia Waggoner. Waggoner died at the scene.
Ms O’Neill’s lawyer, Vinvent DiFabio, said she would appear in court next month, most likely pleading guilty and receiving her sentence on the same day. The sentence, he said, was likely to be “something in the region” of five years.
“If ever my family needed me, it’s today,” O’Neill told the judge during his sentencing hearing. The sentence the judge imposed was significantly lighter than the prosecution had sought. They wanted O’Neill jailed for around three years and total financial penalties of more than $900,000 to be levied.