How a critically ill Jim Mansfield was sued by Kinahans for debt
The late millionaire Jim Mansfield Sr has been sued for money through Daniel Kinahan after his £200million business empire was liquidated with a litany of debts.
In an inside account given by his former security guard Martin Byrne, the ill and crippled Mansfield Sr was sought after by key drug cartel henchman Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh after he ‘lost confidence’ in his eldest son.
Jim Mansfield Jr fell into debt with the Kinahan Cartel after accepting 4.5 million euros in cash from drug traffickers to invest in real estate as the family businesses went bankrupt.
Byrne’s testimony about Mansfield Jr’s ties to criminals led to his conviction last February for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
His testimony on Thursday helped the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) seize a £2million house at 10 Coldwater Lakes in Saggart, Dublin, which was handed over to Daniel Kinahan in partial payment of the debt. He is now in a witness protection program.
Byrne traced Mansfield Jr’s Faustian pact back to Good Friday 2009. He watched Dublin mobsters Kavanagh and Freddie Thompson and others get the VIP treatment at a private party at the family hotel. The next day he saw two suitcases being unloaded from a van at Tassagart House and brought inside.
“The next afternoon, I got a call from Jimmy. He asked me to bring the Mercedes home and pick him up… When I walked into the office, Jimmy Jr opened one of the suitcases, which had wads of cash inside.
Mansfield Jr told him there was “approximately 4.5 million euros in cash in the two suitcases”.
“He said it was paid for by the group of guys who were at the hotel the night before. He joked about it and said that even though he partied, he still made money.
According to Byrne, Mansfield Jr planned to use the money to complete the convention center [at the Citywest hotel] and a “Saudi” project – at the time it planned an English language school for Saudi students.
However, by 2010 the Mansfield family businesses were in receivership. Pressure was put on Mansfield Jr to honor the debt.
Byrne claimed that it was only then that he learned that Kavanagh was a middleman for the Kinahan Cartel.
“At this point there was a lot of pressure on Jimmy Jr to pay off the €4.5m debt,” Byrne said. “Lee Cullen acting on behalf of Bomber Kavanagh asked Jimmy if he had given away that house [at Coldwater]this would erase the majority of this debt.
Kavanagh lost faith in Mansfield Jr, according to Byrne, and turned to Mansfield Sr, who he believed would be “fair”; but he was then in his early 70s and seriously ill.
“Jim Mansfield Sr told me in December 2011 that he had been getting regular calls from a guy called Kavanagh about the failed deal for the property they paid for at Saggart Lodge Court,” Byrne said.
“Jim Sr told me he was feeling nervous as the calls had become more threatening and abusive. He then told me he was talking to several people and asked if there was any chance I make 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. Around 6:00 p.m. I got home and about 20-30 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 arrange a debt meeting. They didn’t give their names. They agreed to meet at the parking lot of the red cow and said both Jim Sr and [his other son] PJ had to be there.
The next evening, Cullen phoned Byrne and asked to meet for coffee at Citywest. That’s where Cullen outlined the plan, Byrne said.
“I had to drive Jim Sr and PJ and park at the back of the main entrance to the Red Cow Hotel. I had to leave the car and Jim and PJ had to sit in the front and I had to go to the reception where Lee would be waiting for me.
“At that time, two Kavanagh representatives would get into the back of the car and meet with Jim and PJ for 10-15 minutes to work out an agreement that the Mansfields would stick to, to make payments on the debt.”
It is understood that the meeting has taken place. Two years passed before the drug cartel secured the keys to 10 Coldwater lakes in April or May 2014. When Cab attacked Coldwater in 2015, Daniel Kinahan’s boxing associate Matthew Macklin was in the property.
They also found Daniel Kinahan’s passport, his brother’s laptop, and receipts related to Kinahan’s convicted shooter, James Quinn.
The High Court has been told Daniel Kinahan, an exile in Dubai, had ‘sanctioned a number of murders’ in the Hutch-Kinahan feud. He did not respond to Cab’s efforts to contact him by phone and email.
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