Alleged pyramid scheme operator Breifne O’Brien has been ordered by a High Court judge to repay amounts of some €1.85 million given to him by his financier brother in law to invest.
The repayment order was not opposed by Mr O'Brien who, in an email to Bernard Lambilliotte last December, had written: "My regret for what I have subjected to you 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 first became aware of "a potential problem over repayment" on December 10th last when Mr O'Brien met him at his (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.
"I was very shocked by this news and it came as a complete surprise to me," he said.
The repayment order, made by Mr Justice Peter Kelly today in the Commercial Court, relates to monies totaling €1,858,396 loaned by Mr Lambilliotte to Mr O'Brien in May and December last year.
To date, Mr O'Brien, of Invergarry, Silchester Road, Glenageary, has been ordered to repay sums of more than €16 million given to him for investment purposes by ten people, including Mr Lambilliotte.
His assets have also been frozen in that amount and the judge has referred documents in the various cases to the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
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