Ex-fundraising platform boss Peter Conlon doing meditation and yoga following release from jail
Convicted fraudster Peter Conlon is practising "transformative meditation", Kriya yoga, and doing 25,000 steps a day after spending a year in a Swiss prison, the High Court has heard.
While the former boss of a collapsed charities fundraising service does not have the money to pay for treatment for mental and physical problems he experienced since leaving jail just before Christmas, he is undertaking this physical exercise and meditation, he says.
Mr Conlon, who founded the collapsed Pembroke Dynamic fundraising platform business, refers to these and other health matters in an affidavit he sent by email to the court which was sworn in a notary's office in Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera on April 1.
He describes himself as an "entrepreneur of no fixed abode" and gives a Stanford University alumni address for correspondence.
Myles Kirby, the liquidator of Pembroke who wants to find out what happened to some €3.8m allegedly misappropriated by the Dublin firm, says Mr Conlon has not identified exactly where he is and has offered to meet him but only in the south of France. Mr Kirby wants to meet him in Dublin.
Mr Conlon (64), whose family home is in Ballsbridge, Dublin, was jailed in Switzerland last November after he pleaded guilty to embezzlement there to using almost €4m - intended for charities - to fund his technology company.
He was jailed for four years, with three suspended, and, as he had already spent a year in prison before the trial, he was released on December 22.
The Leitrim-born man claims he only confessed to the Swiss authorities after he says he was held in 23-hour lock-up for nearly a year. He says he was put under severe mental pressure to confess "which I eventually did when it became apparent to me my pre-trial detention in solitary was consistently being extended with this in mind".
He says as a result of the denial of his human rights and "prosecutorial misconduct" by the Swiss, a report is being prepared for submission to the Irish Government and the European Commissioner for Human Rights.
In the meantime, the liquidator Mr Kirby has repeatedly been in the High Court seeking to get him to co-operate with his investigation.
Mr Kirby says Mr Conlon has been looking for court papers and they have been made available, but he has not collected them. Mr Kirby wants him to swear a more substantial affidavit to address matters raised in the liquidator's case.
While at home in January, he attended his family doctor in Ballsbridge who wrote a letter on his behalf saying he had hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and, because of his time in jail, was suffering "low mood symptoms suggestive of post traumatic stress disorder". The doctor believed he was unfit for work or "to attend to matters requiring intensive concentration".
Mr Conlon says that despite being prescribed drugs for his conditions and counselling, he does not have the financial resources to do so but was engaging in yoga and physical activities.
Today, when the liquidator's case was back before the court, Gerard Meehan BL, for Mr Kirby, said his client did not accept Mr Conlon's request for a further adjournment because of his lack of resources and state of health.
Mr Meehan, who previously said Mr Conlon was "playing hide and seek" with the court, argued today that if he was well enough to make a case to the EU commissioner about his human rights, he could also swear a more substantial affidavit.
Mr Conlon was "very careful" not to say where he was. Counsel said it was not possible to comply with his request the court papers be emailed to him because of the volume of material involved - but Mr Conlon disputes this.
The liquidator was now prepared to set up a "drop box" arrangement whereby he could pick them up, counsel said.
Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds said if that was done, he could have no further complaint about not having received papers. She adjourned the matter for nine weeks.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
