A court has heard multimillion euro Ponzi fraudster Breifne O'Brien is now destitute and living off €188 a week.
O'Brien (52) from Cork, with an address at Monkstown Grove, Co Dublin, faces up to 10 years in prison for deceiving and stealing from five individuals between 2003 and 2008.
O'Brien ripped off close friends and associates to the tune of €8.5 million in what was described in court as a classic pyramid scheme.
The socialite businessman would rob Peter to pay Paul - by securing large deposits for bogus property, shipping and insurance investments in Ireland, Paris and Hamburg.
The money helped fund an extension at his south Dublin home, his wife's car and an investment property in Barbados.
When confronted by his creditors in December 2008, he admitted he had been living a lie but denies claims he told them it was easy to draw suckers in during the boom.
His lawyers say his fall from grace was 'punished' in the media which treated him as the poster boy for the worst excesses of the Celtic Tiger.
They say he has been left divorced, shunned and destitute. He will be sentenced on October 8th.
Originally published 07:00
