The wife of disgraced (and bankrupt) Irish developer Sean Dunne (wanted in Ireland, hiding in America) decided to invest in American properties. Her husband bought up the Berkeley Court and Jurys hotels with a notion to redevelop the sites and make lots of euros, only to end up owing countless millions to the banks, so she was wise to look across the seas for money-making opportunities.
Planning ahead, she hired attorney Philip Teplen to represent her interests in a fab Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion and possibly some little bit of something in Chicago. Now there's $500,000 gone missing and remodeling of the fab mansion in Greenwich is on hold.
The neighbors called out Ms. Dunne when they noticed that the demolition done to the home went beyond what the official permits allowed. Work was stopped in October and Mr. Teplen was supposed to be making appearances before the Greenwich planning board to get the project back on track.
While he was at it, the attorney was also supposed to be helping Ms. Dunne obtain a U.S. Visa, which can be had for the right amount of money. Yes, visas are for sale in America, as long as the seeker invests a large chunk of money in some American project that will lead to jobs for American workers.
Now the money is gone, and so is Philip Teplen. Process servers were unable to locate him, and no one knows where Ms. Dunne's half-million is.
On top of that, the Greenwich planning board is in no hurry to meet with Ms. Dunne or her attorney, so the money tied up in the property development scheme isn't returning anything on the investment. The Irish courts would like to discuss her husband's failure to pay back loans, and there's only so much money in Ms.Dunne's well-performing portfolio. Rent on a Greenwich villa cannot come cheap.
It's become a soap opera, with plenty of drama and a villain running from Irish justice. Like most soap operas, however, it will probably run on and on for years with the same cast and same plot line.
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