Developer buys dead fraudster’s home for €500K

A HOLIDAY home in Kerry owned by a notorious American fraudster was yesterday sold to property developer James Long for €500,000 at an auction in Kenmare.

Mr Long, who has connections in Limerick and London, intends to use the house, which is surrounded by landscaped gardens, as a private residence.

The four-bedroom house in Templenoe, outside Kenmare, had been owned and used by the late Matthew Schachter who operated locally under the name Robert Lewis Brown.

He died in California, in 2005, and at the time of his death it was estimated that he had defrauded people to the tune of €23 million through bogus insurance policies.

Upwards of 6,000 people in the US and Canada lost money to Schachter and the sale of the three-acre property and money seized from bank accounts here should boost a victims’ fund by around €4m.

“The victims are readily identifiable in this case and it should, therefore, be possible to return to them some of what they have lost,” said Criminal Assets Bureau legal officer Frank Cassidy.

Some people lost all their savings to Schachter’s scams and it is now reckoned they will recover anything from a fifth to a quarter of their losses.

Yesterday’s auction resulted from a High Court ruling, in May, on foot of an application by the CAB which also seized €3.5m held by Schachter in AIB bank accounts in Kerry and the Financial Services Centre, Dublin.

The natural stone house, overlooking the scenic Kenmare River, had a reserve of €500,000.

“We’re quite satisfied that the sale reached the value we had put on the house,” said Daire Crowley, of DNG WH Giles auctioneers, Tralee.

After withdrawing the house from the auction following 10 bids which had brought it to €450,000, Ms Crowley held private negotiations with three bidders and the house was eventually sold to Mr Long.

The late Mr Schachter, meanwhile, came to the notice of the CAB while living in Kenmare in 2004, after they had been contacted the US investigators.

Using the alias Robert Lewis Brown he had incorporated two bogus companies in the Caribbean.

At the time of his death, at the age of 59, he was awaiting trial after being extradited from Canada.

The real Robert Lewis Brown had died in Las Vegas in 2001, but Schachter used his name while living in Ireland.

Schachter even had an Irish driving licence in Mr Brown’s name.