The bankrupt, the conman, the Mafia and the Irish connection - Chris Moore

Colin Lees was everybody's friend. A successful businessman in the little town of Magherafelt, Co. Derry, he had charm, good connections and was a winner. Until, that is, it all went wrong. It all went wrong in 1992. His business empire collapsed under a mountain of debt, caused by over-ambitious expansion in previous years. Lees was in the hole for IR Punt35 million. On top of that, there was a further fraud involving a missing IR Punt23 million. Then it emerged that Lees had a second business in Scotland which was an MI6 shadow company. It had collapsed as well. The Fraud Squad moved in and Lees had to surrender his passport. His UK passport, that is. He did not tell them about his Irish passport, with which he flew the coop and went to the United States. There he soon relieved a Texas businessman of USD1 million in a scam and ruined the business of one of his father's oldest friends. He returned to Ireland in 1996 and, by the time he was finally arrested, was involved in a maze of criminal activity involving drugs shipments and money laundering for the Mafia. Colin Lees gets out of jail next year: the missing IR Punt23 million is waiting somewhere for him.