Man jailed for facilitating €100,000 in money laundering

By Jessica Magee

A man who allowed just under €100,000 from an investment to be laundered through his bank account said he received the money from someone he thought was his friend.

 Magno Da Silva (33) pleaded guilty to possessing €99,975 as the proceeds of crime in his account at AIB, Capel Street, Dublin 1, last September 25.

Da Silva, of The Chandler apartments, Dublin 7, was sentenced to three years in prison with the final nine months suspended at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday.

The court heard that Da Silva told gardaí on arrest that the money was deposited in his account by a friend of his, “John Rocketfella Santos, the guy that holds the sign” in Dublin city centre.

Da Silva said he was told by this friend that the sum of almost €100,000 was “clean money”, or financial profit on which he intended paying tax to revenue.

The court heard that two weeks after receiving the money, Da Silva bought a second-hand Mercedes and a Toyota with a combined value of €45,000. The remainder of the money he gave to his wife.

Detective Garda Eoin Morrison told Joe Mulrean BL, prosecuting, that the injured party in the case remains at a loss of €79,604.

The court heard that last July, the injured party was looking to put his life savings into an account with a decent rate of interest.

The man researched various schemes on the internet and then got a phone call from a private number offering him a government treasury bond.

Det Gda Morrison said a significant amount of correspondence was exchanged between the injured party and another person in what he described as a “sophisticated” scheme.

The injured party transferred €99,975 from his Permanent TSB account into an AIB account and was later emailed a digital copy of a purported treasury bond.

When the injured party emailed back requesting a physical copy of the treasury bond, his email bounced back, and he realised he had been scammed.

The injured party spoke to the fraud department at Permanent TSB who managed to freeze some €20,000 of the money.

Gardaí were informed that the remainder of the money had gone into a credit card account belonging to Da Silva.

Da Silva told bank officials at AIB that the source of the money he had received was from a business he owned in Brazil; however, this was never ascertained.

Gardaí established that two weeks after the money went into his account, Da Silva had gone to a garage in Dunleer, Co Louth and bought a second-hand silver Mercedes, registered 2017, for €22,900.

A few days later, he went to a different garage and bought a second-hand Toyota for €22,400.

Gardaí arrested Da Silva at his home at the end of October and seized the two cars which were sitting outside.

Da Silva said he had come to Ireland some four years ago and had worked for a period, opening his AIB account in order to receive his wages.

He told gardaí he was going to use his wages to travel to Turkey to get a hair transplant.

Da Silva has one previous conviction for laundering €10,000 in another investment fraud involving three victims in 2023, for which he got a three-month suspended sentence.

A victim impact statement from the injured party was handed into court but not read aloud.

Judge Martin Nolan refused a request from counsel for the defence to allow Da Silva time to obtain a bank loan in order to reimburse the injured party.

Counsel said Da Silva is very remorseful and willing to repay as much as he can to the victim over time.

Da Silva and his partner have a one-year-old daughter, the court heard.

Judge Nolan accepted that Da Silva had not been convicted of theft and that his involvement was “downstream” from the initial theft of €100,000.

The judge said nonetheless Da Silva knew these were illicit monies and had acted with a great degree of recklessness.

Judge Nolan said the injured party had suffered both financially and emotionally.

He sentenced Da Silva to three years with the final nine months suspended, and ordered that the two cars in the possession of the State be sold as soon as possible and the proceeds given to the injured party.