The late millionaire Jim Mansfield Sr was chased for money by… Daniel Kinahan‘s middleman after his 200 million euro business empire went into liquidation with a series of debts.
Following an inside account of his former security guard, Martin Byrne, the ailing and ailing Mansfield Sr was wanted by the drug cartel’s main accomplice, Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, after he lost faith in his eldest son.
Jim Mansfield Jr ran into debt to the Kinahan cartel after taking $4.5 million in cash from the drug traffickers to invest in real estate when the family businesses went under.
Byrne’s evidence of Mansfield Jr’s ties to criminals resulted in his conviction last February for attempting to distort the course of justice.
On Thursday, his testimony helped the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) seize a €2 million house at 10 Coldwater Lakes in Saggart, Dublin, which was handed over to Daniel Kinahan as partial payment of the debt. He is now in a witness protection program.
Byrne traced Mansfield Jr’s Faustian pact to Good Friday 2009. He saw Dublin mobsters Kavanagh and Freddie Thompson and others getting the VIP treatment at a private party at the family hotel. The next day, he watched as two suitcases were unloaded from a van at Tassagart House and taken inside.
“The next afternoon I got a call from Jimmy. He asked me to take the Mercedes to the house and pick it up… As I walked into the office, Jimmy Jr. opened one of the briefcases, which contained bundles of money.’
Mansfield Jr told him there was “about $4.5 million in cash in the two briefcases”.
“He said this was paid for by the group of guys who were at the hotel the night before. He joked about this and said that even though he was partying, he was still making money.”
According to Byrne, Mansfield Jr planned to use the money to finish the convention center [at the Citywest hotel] and a ‘Saudi’ project – at the time he was planning an English language school for students from Saudi Arabia.
By 2010, however, Mansfield’s family businesses were in receivership. Pressure was put on Mansfield Jr to pay the debt.
Byrne claimed it was only then that he learned that Kavanagh was an intermediary for the Kinahan cartel – he was told so by Lee Cullen, then a socialite car dealer now in prison for gun smuggling, who was acting on Kavanagh’s behalf.
“Right now there was a lot of pressure on Jimmy Jr to repay the $4.5 million in debt,” Byrne said. “Lee Cullen, acting on behalf of Bomber Kavanagh, asked Jimmy to sign this house [at Coldwater]that would eliminate most of this debt.”
Kavanagh lost faith in Mansfield Jr, according to Byrne, and turned to Mansfield Sr, who he said would be “honest”; but he was then in his early 70s and seriously ill.
“Jim Mansfield Sr told me in December 2011 that he was receiving regular calls from a man named Kavanagh regarding the deal that fell through for property they had paid for in Saggart Lodge Court,” Byrne said.
“Jim Sr told me he was nervous because the calls had become more threatening and abusive. He then told me he spoke to several individuals and asked if there was any chance that I would contact and deal with Kavanagh on behalf of the Mansfields.
Byrne agreed. He added: “One evening in early January 2012, I received a call from Jim asking me to come to Tassagart House and get a call from the Kavanaghs. At about 6pm I arrived at the house and about 20 to 30 minutes later Jim got a call from the Kavanaghs.
“I picked up the phone and asked who I was talking to and if it was possible to make an appointment about the debt. They didn’t give their name. They agreed to meet in the parking lot at the Red Cow and said that both Jim Sr and… [his other son] PJ would be there.”
The next evening, Cullen called Byrne and asked for a coffee in Citywest. That’s where Cullen outlined the plan, Byrne said.
“I would drive with Jim Sr and PJ and park at the back of the main entrance of the Red Cow Hotel. I had to get out of the car and Jim and PJ had to sit in the front and I had to go to the front desk where Lee would be waiting.
“At that point, two representatives of the Kavanaghs got into the back of the car and met Jim and PJ for 10 to 15 minutes to negotiate an agreement that the Mansfields would abide by, to pay off the debt.”
It is clear that the meeting has taken place. Two years passed before the drug cartel got the keys to 10 Coldwater Lakes in April or May 2014. When Cab invaded Coldwater in 2015, Matthew Macklin, Daniel Kinahan’s boxing partner, was at the property.
They also found Daniel Kinahan’s passport, his brother’s laptop and receipts related to convicted Kinahan gunman James Quinn.
The Supreme Court was told Daniel Kinahan, exiled in Dubai, “sanctioned a number of murders” in the Hutch-Kinahan feud. He did not respond to Cab’s attempts to contact him by phone and email.