Bulgarian associate of Michael Lynn fined for refusing to provide phone passwords

A friend and business associate of convicted solicitor Michael Lynn has been fined €500 over his refusal to provide passwords to two mobile phones seized during a Garda search of his Dublin apartment.Yavor Poptoshev (50) failed to disclose the passwords when armed members of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, acting on warrants, arrived at the apartment at St Raphaela’s Road, Stillorgan, Dublin, just after 7am on January 9th, 2024, and seized the devices. The raid on the apartment was one of many carried out by gardaí investigating possible money laundering associated with the massive frauds carried out by Lynn, the High Court was subsequently told. Poptoshev was a director of some of the Irish property companies under investigation.The Bulgarian national told gardaí he would provide the passwords if he was advised by his solicitor that he was obliged to do so. He was taken to Dundrum Garda station where, after speaking with a solicitor, he said he was refusing to provide the passwords based on legal advice.READ MOREThe failure to disclose the passwords led to Poptoshev being charged. Progress in the case was delayed by an unsuccessful challenge to the High Court and the Supreme Court, where he argued that the 2001 Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act did not give the authorities the power to compel him to disclose his passwords.Following the Supreme Court ruling, the data was extracted from the devices by the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, without the assistance of Poptoshev, the District Court in Dún Laoghaire was told on Wednesday.Poptoshev pleaded guilty to the two charges, the court heard. When Judge Conor Fottrell sought confirmation that no other charges had been brought arising from the search of Poptoshev’s apartment, Brian Coveney, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said there was an ongoing Garda investigation but “as things stand, there is nothing arising”.The judge then imposed a fine of €250 in respect of each of the two charges, with six months to pay. Poptoshev, he said, had been given two opportunities to provide the passwords on foot of warrants issued by the court.Earlier, Det Garda Anthony Woods said Poptoshev, his wife and their children were in the Dublin apartment at the time of the 2024 search, which was part of a wider “extensive” investigation.Barrister Aoife McCann, for Poptoshev, said her client’s life had been “extremely impacted” by the search, which “changed everything” for him. Popstoshev, who had come to Ireland in July 2022 in pursuit of his career in property development, was now living back in Bulgaria where he worked as the manager of a sports goods shop and had “left his career in property”, she said.She asked that the Probation Act be applied. Her client had no previous convictions, she told the court.In 2023, Michael Lynn was convicted on 10 counts of theft in 2006 and 2007 from various financial institutions of amounts totalling €17.9 million. He was sentenced to 5½ years in jail.In his civil challenge to the legality of the charges brought against him, Poptoshev said he had known Lynn for 14 or 15 years and had worked with him on projects in several countries, including Portugal, Hungary and Slovakia. Poptoshev said he assisted him with “forensic analysis” of Lynn’s affairs during the solicitor’s 2023 criminal trial.The Bulgarian is a former director of the Irish company that bought the house in Co Wicklow where Lynn’s family has been living in recent years. Lynn was released from prison earlier this year under the community return scheme and is understood to be living in the house.