The fraud which led to Ireland's first money-laundering trial began in July 1996 when financier Mr Walter Robin agreed to arrange a loan of 40 million deutschmarks (about £16 million) for a hotel and leisure complex planned by Berlin businessman Mr Klaus-Jurgen Wiese.
A train of events was thus set in motion across Western Europe ending nearly a year later with the arrest of Maria Bernadette Jehle in Midleton, Co Cork.
Authorities in England, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland worked with the Garda fraud team, headed by Det Insp Terry McGinn. A key witness for the prosecution was Mr Robin, a flamboyant American and Monte Carlo resident who described himself in court as a "financial engineer". He organises international multi-million-pound loans and investments.
He told the court that after agreeing to arrange Mr Wiese's loan he fell in with "a cast of characters" of whom he soon grew heartily sick. They included a fellow Monte Carlo resident, Prof Uwe Benne-Kemper, who introduced him to intermediaries Mr Sven-Uwe Palisch and Mr Peter Jehle, Maria Bernadette's son.
These two took two million deutschmarks from Mr Wiese as a "deposit" and told him they had paid it into Mr Robin's bank.
Mr Robin had not liked them: "My first impression of Palisch was blue jeans with holes in them. I didn't like the look of the guy. Jehle looked like he should be playing rugby, not involved in financial deals."
The money never arrived in Monte Carlo, only surfacing the following month in Maria Jehle's AIB account in Cahir.
Much the same thing happened over the next few months to a genial French dentist, Dr Patric Gueniot, who handed more than 800,000 francs (about £90,000) to the fraudsters, again as a "deposit" on a business deal they were arranging for him. His money appeared in the TSB Midleton account of Jehle in May 1997.
The trial, conducted in French, German and English, brought together various characters until it resembled the plot of a spy thriller.
"All we're missing is the dancing girls on the tables," the State's senior counsel, Ms Maureen Clarke SC, remarked.
Mr Sven-Uwe Palisch (27), an ex-German army conscript, was a key defence witness, although not, as it turned out, a very credible one. He was granted full immunity from prosecution while in Ireland. He is wanted for questioning in Luxemburg, Switzerland and Germany for suspected criminal activity.
He soon drew the wrath of the trial judge, Judge Patrick Moran, for his contemptuous attitude to the court. He was a man "obsessed by money" said Ms Clarke.
He described in vivid, boastful detail the lifestyle he aspired to in Monte Carlo, full of yachts, villas, planes and luxury cars. "Everyone there lives like that," he assured the court.
Maria Bernadette Jehle, who left school at 15, married at 18, and was divorced with two children to support by the time she was 30, came to Ireland on holiday in 1989 and was entranced by the "green paradise".
She saw opportunities for dealing in property, a business she was involved in in her native Switzerland. She successfully sold several properties to Swiss clients, and bought The Priory in Cobh on 14 acres for £350,000.
"It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen," she told the trial.
It is now valued at £1 million. But she was unable to keep up the payments on it, and when offered money by Mr Palisch, whom she had met in Switzerland, she accepted. He was to buy some of the land and develop it.
The State will apply on October 19th for confiscation of Jehle's property. It is also the target for High Court actions being brought by Mr Wiese and Dr Gueniot.