The story has all the hallmarks of a film or a Netflix series; a famous French actor with a private yacht allegedly swindled out of millions by an alleged fraudster posing as a fake Irish lord and maritime expert. Delivering wealth, glamour, intrigue and private investigators exploring an anonymous tip-off and alleged money laundering through a complex international network of companies and property, the location shoots could take in Monaco, Cork, Brussels, Paris, Belize, South Korea and maybe even Samoa.

Except according to the protagonist, 56-year-old film star Dany Boon, the saga playing out in a Dublin court is all too real. 

The actor, writer and director, who lives in Belgium, claims Thierry Fialek-Birles, aka Terry Birles or Thierry Waterville-Mandeville, spearheaded a conspiracy to defraud him of between €4.5 and €6.735 million on dates between April and July of last year. 

Boon says he advanced over €2.2 million through an Irish shipping business linked to Birles to cover the costs of running his yacht. He claims he advanced another €4.5 million via Revolut into the same business for the purposes of investing in a non-existent tax free Irish Central Bank deposit scheme, on Birles’ advice.

When contacted by The Currency, Birles denied the claims made against him, stating they were  “baseless” and defamatory. 

The actor secured a temporary High Court freezing order last week preventing Birles and several corporate entitles he allegedly either controls or is the ultimate beneficial owner of from reducing their assets below a value of €6 million.

The defendants to the case are South Sea Merchants Mariners (SSMM), an Irish incorporated limited partnership; Thierry Fialek-Birles aka Terry Birles or Thierry Waterville-Mandeville, previously listed as SSMM’s general partner; United Far East Oriental Holdings (Samoa) Ltd, SSMM’s limited partner; Hibernian Petroleum Limited Partnership; United Irish Estates Ltd and Hibernian Yachts Company.

It is claimed the first three defendants perpetrated the alleged fraud while the last four defendants were used by Birles to hide or distribute the proceeds.

Not that Boon hasn’t considered giving the story the big screen treatment before going down the litigation route. Devastated to discover he had allegedly been scammed, he says in his affidavit that he messaged Birles last month on June 24 last, to inform him that he had no leverage over him as a public figure.

“I wanted to tell Mr Birles that I was not afraid of the publicity that would come with the revelation of the scam and therefore that Mr Birles had no leverage over me to refuse repayment. I indicated that I would even be ready to make a movie about this story, to make the point even more strongly,” Boon says in his affidavit.

He adds that he appreciates the message is “dramatic in its tone and content”. Contrary to any claims made, he says he did not threaten to kill Birles.

Dany Boon

Boon is not a household name in Ireland. But he is in France. He started out in comedy in the 1980s and 1990s, later acting, co-writing and directing the 2008 comic smash Bienvenue Chez Les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks) about a French postal worker who unexpectedly discovers the joys of living in the unglamorous Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. The film was such a success it broke box office records in France. He has also worked with producer and director Jean Pierre Jeunet and actor, writer and director Julie Delpy. He is also the voice of Olaf in the French version of the Frozen movies.

Birles is a 33-year-old French man with numerous international business and corporate interests, many of which are in Ireland. He is said to own a property in Youghal and three yachts, including the classic yacht Erin and appears to be a member of the Royal Yacht Club in Cork, although an attempt to confirm this with the club was unsuccessful.

The genesis of the row

The current controversy started when Boon, a sailing enthusiast, decided to buy his own boat. For twenty years, he had rented boats for the summer season from a yachting company in Monaco. In 2020, he figured it was time to get his own. He commissioned specialist builders, Construction Navale de Bordeaux (CNB), to make him a yacht, called Umaren, which was delivered in the Spring of last year. 

In January 2021, while the yacht was still under construction, Boon was in Monaco where he was introduced to Birles by Marc Pajot, a well-known former French Olympic sailor. At their first encounter, Birles was allegedly presented to Boon as an Irish Lord, and a lawyer specialising in maritime law.

Pajot, a multiple French champion, is said to have identified Birles as someone Boon could trust to provide registration and yacht management services, advising the actor on costs grounds against using the Monaco rental firm he had previously engaged.

According to Pajot, Birles was the head of SSMM, a yacht management company created by his family in 1922. 

Despite both being French, the men engaged in English. Birles soon became a trusted advisor to Boon.

That very month, on Birles’ advice, Boon instructed the Dublin based partnership SSMM to incorporate a company in Antigua and Barbuda, referred to as Ad Illel, to be the registered owner of Umaren. He also mandated the business to manage the daily organisation of the vessel in terms of crew and location. 

On January 27, 2021, Boon was invoiced by SSMM for $5,500.00, which he paid. 

In the weeks that followed, he was advised that he would need to set up a bank account in the name of Ad Illel and keep it adequate funded for the day-to-day running and management costs of the yacht and for the purpose of repatriating the crew in the event that it ran aground. Birles said this could be done by opening a segregated escrow account on SSMM’s books.

The escrow account was with Revolut. Birles allegedly stated in subsequent emails with Boon’s English lawyers, Mishcon De Reya, that these Revolut accounts were “operational” and that their contents were “usually transferred to be held at Barclays Bank or other banks we worked with overseas”.

Over the following months, Boon maintained a balance of approximately €200,000 in the escrow account to be discharged by SSMM in respect of fuel, food and docking fees for the Umaren – of which there are next to no details disclosed in the court papers.

But it clearly had a crew. Birles took on the responsibility of appointing a captain for the yacht. and organised insurance for €14,000 with a Samoan firm, Pacific Prudential Insurance Company (“PPIC”), which he apparently claimed was far cheaper than the EU average. 

Boon said he subsequently discovered that the insurance wasn’t put in place and PPIC didn’t exist. The court heard its headquarters are the same as one of Birles’ entities, United Far East & Oriental Holdings, and appear to be a hardware store in Apia, Samoa.

The investment deal

The relationship between Boon and Birles was professional rather than friendly. They had dinner together only twice. The first time in October 2021, at the exclusive Michelin starred Hotel Le Bristol in Paris. The second dinner took place on December 1, 2021, at Kamo, a Michelin starred Japanese restaurant in Brussels. Boon says he considered Birles a very responsive and efficient manager, whom he trusted.

So when Birles allegedly approached him in Spring 2021 about a €4.5 million investment opportunity from the Central Bank of Ireland, he agreed to it. The bank was said to be offering to pay an interest rate of some 3.24 per cent tax-free on deposits made.

“This was presented to me as a safe investment, with a fairly high return. The interest would have covered the entirety of the maintenance costs for the Umaren and could later enable me to invest into a larger ship a few years later,” Boon says in his affidavit.

That’s the first time I had this Donald Trump moment (you’ve been fired), although they were definitely nicer

Message from Birles

The arrangements were made over WhatsApp last July. Boon instructed his bank, JP Morgan, to transfer the funds to SSMM dated July 21, 2021.

“Dear Dany, I hope you are enjoying your time aboard Umaren! Just a quick note to confirm that we got the four, five m. It has been sent this afternoon to the bank so interest earning begins today. Cheers,” Birles is said to have messaged Boon on July 26.

They WhatsApped back and forth, about the yacht, and about having drinks in St Tropez. Later with hindsight Boon said he recognised his “great naivety” in transferring in excess of €4.5 million to the Barclays Revolut Account set up by Birles through SSMM.

However he said: “At this stage I had complete faith and trust in the services of Mr. Birles, and also in his integrity as a person,” the actor said. Boon even gave Birles’ contact number to his private bank JP Morgan for one of their clients. 

The Rossi transaction

Then out of the blue on November 21 last, Birles messaged Boon to say SSMM had been bought by an Italian family called Rossi. He said they would take over the management of the partnership but he, Birles, would remain on as a senior advisor to the board for the foreseeable future.

Surprised at the development, Boon sent a message on WhatsApp: “Hello Thierry. Oh my! Big news, big change. Okay. When is it gonna be official? I am happy you will stay as a senior advisor.”

Boon let Birles know he wanted to keep him on as an adviser and lawyer for his “beautiful Umaren”.

On November 26, Boon began messaging Birles about the swift of the wire of the €4.5 million investment so that his banker JP Morgan could advise him when it had received the funds.

Birles replied that he had passed on his request to the accounting department at SSMM and  “they shall proceed with the execution of the same in a timely manner. I will keep you posted ASAP on both, but as I don’t have the signature anymore they have to do that by themselves which hopefully will be done soon”.

Birles departs SSMM

In late November, Boon received a letter signed “Anna Rossi” stating that as part of a restructuring the facility opened through Barclays Bank – Revolut is no longer available and that all segregated escrow accounts are now “safely operated at Standard Chartered Bank (South Korea)”.

On affidavit, Boon says: “This was the beginning of a further elaborate deception. The deception was that SSMM had been taken over by the ‘Rossi’ family, there had been a group restructuring and the funds deposited by Boon had been transferred to a Standard Chartered account in South Korea.”

In correspondence, Anna Rossi said funds were held in Korea or Panama to cater to the shipping clientele’s needs. 

On December 7, several days after their dinner in Brussels, Birles allegedly texted Boon to say that the Rossi family had terminated his contract. “That’s the first time I had this Donald Trump moment (you’ve been fired), although they were definitely nicer,” the message said.

Birles allegedly said he would assist Boon in pressing for the return of his money, allegedly going so far as to suggest the French actor should sue his former business.

On December 8, a worried Boon messaged: “I need my money! I want you to fix that problem ASAP. I don’t understand what’s happening.” He said the yacht’s captain had not received money and Anna Rossi was too busy to answer his calls. “This is a shitty situation that you put me in. I need you to get things done. Please Thierry!”

Birles allegedly replied that there was little he could do as he had sold the business. 

The lawyers

By January of this year, Boon’s English solicitors Mischon De Reya wrote to SSMM seeking the urgent return of the €4.5 million investment. In a reply, Marco Rossi said the letter had been passed on to their legal department but that it was his understanding that the limited partnership did not challenge Boon’s money claim as being fully owed to him.

There was further legal correspondence in the weeks that followed, though this time the letters of demand came from Irish law firm Arthur Cox, on behalf of Boon. By return email, Marco Rossi informed them SSMM had moved offices from Camden Street Lower to Adelaide Road in Dublin 2. The email went on to purport to explain the reasons for the delay in the return of the €4.5 million which included an oversight in regulatory approval and the impact of Covid-related travel restrictions which prevented Rossi from travelling to South Korea to deal with the matter. 

While now of the view something very serious had happened to his funds, Boon said he did not at that point suspect Birles of being involved.

The two stayed in contact with Birles offering his assistance in any proceedings issued against SSMM. But that was to change with an anonymous tip-off.

The tipster

“While I appreciate with the benefit of bitter hindsight that I was fed innumerable lies by Mr. Birles, it was only in Spring of 2022 that I had a real apprehension that I had been swindled of my funds. This arose from an anonymous email I received out of the blue in March 2022,” Boon wrote in his affidavit.

The anonymous email turned out to be from Andre Acke, a 70-year-old retired Belgian who had worked with Birles, but it would be a while before his identity was revealed. 

Acke, who works in  property restoration, claimed he too had been a victim of Birles. He said he  first met Birles in a bar in Brussels in 2017. He was having some difficulties with the tax authorities and the French businessman advised him to set up a company in the UK called AAA Global Consultancy. He also offered to help him put in place health insurance. Acke said he transferred €20,000 but no health insurance was put in place. When confronted, he says Birles repaid him the money.

He says he met Birles again in 2019. “He looked physically worn out and admitted to me that he had been in prison.” The alleged fraudster said he wanted help to buy a house in Normandy, France. Acke says he went with him to view three or four properties and Birles ultimately bought one in Bully-Rully through one of his companies Far East and Oriental Holdings Samoa.

Acke says he was engaged by Birles to do renovations on the property, which was in poor condition. In September 2021, when Acke needed work, he took a job providing secretarial support to SSMM which paid him between €4,000 to €5,000 per month. “I didn’t dwell on what had happened a few years earlier, and I told myself that everyone deserves another chance. I didn’t know the extent of his activities,” he said in his court filing.

Part of his role was to answer requests from clients for boat registrations, only three or four of which were realised by him during his time there. Through the SSMM email, he claims he saw emails purporting to be from the Rossi family to Boon. Acke claims he knew the emails were really from Birles, who was still behind the company. Immediately suspicious, Acke said it was apparent to him from the correspondence that Boon had put €4.5 million into escrow, Birles had fabricated a corporate buyout and SSMM was now refusing to give the money back. 

Acke says he was unaware at this stage of who Boon was (despite being an admirer of his film work) but he wanted to warn him that he was the victim of a fraud so he sent him an anonymous email. Later he revealed his identity and provided Boon with bank account information and access to SSMM’s email.

Acke’s UK company was struck off in April 2019 for not carrying on business, according to documents from Companies House.

The investigation file

With the tip-off in the bag, Boon says he began to play along with Birles, afraid that if he didn’t he would go to ground.

Birles was told Boon wanted his assistance to sell Umaren and buy a new yacht. As recently as last May 30, the agent messaged that a would-be buyer was “complicating every step”.  

In the meantime, through his French lawyers, Paris law firm August Debouzy (known as ‘the perfect French data & privacy package’, according to the Legal 500), Boon hired private investigators to put together a file on Birles and his business dealings. 

The report, submitted to the court, was used to secure a number of freezing orders against the Frenchman.

It was only on June 23 last that Boon revealed to Birles what he had gathered.

According to Boon, the preliminary investigation shows Birles is a fraudster with a track record of dishonesty. “His modus operandi is to construct a fictitious background for himself and for the entities through which he purports to do business and by this means he persuades individuals such as myself (but there have been others) to part with large sums of cash, which he simply never returns,” the actor claims.

Many of those entities are in Ireland.

Apart from the ones in the court case, Irish companies associated with Birles are said to include: MOH Places Limited; Chicago Navigation Company Limited; Expert Maritime Limited and Continental Antiques and Fine Art. Each of the foregoing companies was registered on documents presented to the CRO by Mr. Birles, according to the Investigation Report. All have an address at a workhub on Lower Camden Street.

Birles is also associated with a number of companies in other jurisdictions, including the UK, Antigua and Barbuda, and the British Virgin Islands.

Of his aliases, it is alleged that Thierry Birles was used between 2012 and 2015, before being abandoned, according to the Investigation Report, following the institution of French legal proceedings in or around April 2014. 

Between 2015 and 2019, Birles allegedly presented himself as Sr. Thierry Waterford-Mandeville KLJ endowing this identity with a fictional narrative of a disqualified British aristocrat, a lawyer by training and engaged in rum-related activities in Belize and yachting in Jamaica.  Between 2019 to date, he has gone by the name Terry Birles.

Ad Illel, the company supposedly incorporated to register Boon’s yacht, does not currently appear on the corporate register of Antigua and Barbuda. The investigators hired by the actor doubt if it exists.

Additionally, information is said to have come to light that Birles has been spending large sums of money from Revolut cards and has sought to close his business Revolut account linked to the SSMM email address, stating that the business is no longer operating.

Assets and alleged dissipation

Birles is alleged to have a prolific spending habit and an expensive lifestyle, including the upkeep of the Erin and its participation in notable sailing events.

In this action, Birles is said to be the beneficial owner of 3 Strand Street, Youghal, a three-storey terraced period house by the harbour in need of considerable restoration. Boon alleges this was likely bought with his money.

From the property price register, it appears the house was sold on August 27, 2021 for €167,000. Attempts were made by The Currency to contact the estate agent handling the sale to confirm whether the buyer was Thierry Birles or any of his alleged aliases.

According to court filings, Birles has been trying to hire a contractor to get the Cork Property renovated, allegedly stating in an email that: “the house has been vested in one of my companies in Ireland and we have a VAT number so we should be avail[sic] to avail [sic] some VAT reliefs on the materials etc.” 

“I believe that the Cork Property was purchased by United Irish Estates using funds stolen from me. The timing of the purchase which appears to have occurred in the second half of 2021 post-dates the transfer by me of over €4.5m to SSMM together with the other transfers referred to in this affidavit. It appears to me that United Irish Estates is an entity which is likely hiding profits from the fraud,” Boon says in his affidavit.

The Investigation Report shows minutes of a meeting of May 26, 2019, which records a decision to join another defendant, United Far East, as a limited partner in SSMM with the distributable cash of the business to be divided as to 10 per cent to Birles and 90 per cent to United Far East. Boon says he believes this structure may have been used by Birles to distribute “profits” to a Samoan company not so easily reached by creditors.

According to Boon’s lawyers, Birles also has or had addresses at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Paris, Monaco, St Kitts, and Guadaloupe.

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Of all the corporate entities, South Seas Merchants Mariners has the oldest and most confusing history, at least according to its website. It was allegedly established in Dublin in 1922, at the dawn of the Free State, as a joint-stock partnership, “with offices in England, India and New Zealand, trading all along the sea route from Europe to the farthest outposts of the British Empire”.  Its coat of arms depicts the Saint George’s Cross with five anchors. 

This ties in with Boon’s description of his introduction to Birles and SSMM.

“By the mid-1930’s, the company was supplying most of the logistics for the major shipping lines sailing to the Far East as well as to the West Indies. In the late 1960’s, in addition to its core business of Shipbrokerage and Chartering, South Seas Merchants Mariners LP began assisting private yachts owners and managing crew on their behalf,” the website claims. 

The founders are not named on the website but the partnership is described as “a family-controlled business which has been in the same hands since 1922” serving clients in yacht and ship management in more than 80 countries.

It goes on to say that the joint stock partnership was dissolved and the company re-incorporated as a  limited partnership in 2018 before a change of ownership in 2021. 

According to the CRO, SSMM was registered as a limited partnership in September 2019, not 2018. The phone number on the company’s website was not working when The Currency tried to call last Tuesday afternoon and pose questions about the ownership of SSMM, the location of Boon’s money, and the partnership’s role in an alleged fraud against the French actor.

A follow-up email to the business had been left unanswered at the time of publication.

Boon claims SSMM is not a longstanding maritime service provider but merely a front for the fraud.

So where is Birles?

Last week July 11 to 15, his classic sailboat, the Erin, was scheduled to be at Crosshaven, Cork for the sailing event, Volvo Week. William Walsh, a university student on a placement with McCann Fitzgerald, the Irish law firm currently representing Boon, went down to identify the boats, Erin, the Shamrock and Fair Lady, believed to be owned by Birles, which were due to take part in the yacht racing. He said he only saw the “moored and manned” Erin on the Saturday, which was listed as coming in fifth place with its owner, Birles, the following day. He did not see Birles.

Sailing publication Afloat reported that the Erin did not compete in the final race in its class at Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Cork Week Regatta on Friday, July 15. “The classic yacht, owned by RCYC member Terry Birles, is subject to a temporary High Court order, arising out of an action launched this week by French actor and film director Daniel Boon,” it said.

It is alleged in the proceedings that the defendant Hibernian Yachts was either used to disburse payments connected to the Erin, or is its owner.

*****

Having been granted ex-parte orders, Boon’s case comes back to court this morning where the defendants will have an opportunity to put their side of the saga to Justice Brian O’Moore. 

If some or all of the defendants don’t show up Boon’s lawyers will outline the attempts that have been made to serve legal documents on Birles and the corporate entities using various email or postal addresses including Birles’ alleged home at Strand Street, Youghal. 

This is the address assigned to him in CRO filings for Asia Monaco Investments Ltd, an Irish company said to be involved in fund management activities that Birles registered on June 22, 2021. The owner of the company is Xin Zhao, allegedly the girlfriend of Birles with addresses in Monte Carlo and in a workhub in Sandyford Business Park. Notably, Asia Monaco Investments Limited has an authorised and issued share capital of some €6.8m, with 680,000 shares held by Zhao.

It seems Birles will be legally represented and in fighting mode at today’s hearing. When contacted by The Currency via email about the case he said: “We intend to challenge all those baseless and libelous accusations. Submissions will be made on July 21st next.” He added that his lawyers would get in contact at a later point in respect of specific questions about the alleged fraud and the whereabouts of Boon’s money.

The email added: “Most of the facts that Mr Boon and his lawyers are disclosing are to be believed as circumstantial and would they had undertaken proper due diligence they would have found that the Rossi family are genuine people and sued the new owners of the partnership and left a genuine and legitimate business owner who sold his company complying with the law enjoy his retirement, not to mention that most of the corporate defendants never had any business dealings whatsoever with the plaintiff.”

The court will also get an update on the various assets, including the Erin in Cork, that Boon is ultimately trying to secure in a judgment against the Frenchman.