Stacy Taylor is alleged to have used the passport, in which he claimed to be David Stafford, to establish companies in the UK and other countries.
He allegedly duped people to each invest between $1m (€848,000) and $2m after they were promised huge returns. ?
While Mr Taylor was indicted in 2023 in the United States, he has been battling a detention order. This week, a judge in Kentucky refused a motion by him to have that order revoked.
“The circumstances surrounding the offence are serious because Taylor allegedly used a falsified passport to carry out the fraud,” noted the court. “Finally, the lengthy potential prison sentence the offence carries suggests there is a greater motive for Taylor to flee.”
He could serve up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
US Customs and Border Protection told the court that Mr Taylor had used the fake Irish passport to travel internationally. Mr Taylor denied he had used it for travel.
But the court heard that he was arrested in Hong Kong in 2011 and was handed over to US marshals in 2012. Customs and Border Protection said the Irish passport under the David Stafford name had been used in 2009 for travel from Chicago to Germany and then from Germany to Spain.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, which oversees the Passport Office, said the integrity of the Irish passport is a “foremost priority” of the passport service.
Even if these lofty claims are simply a product of Taylor’s propensity for grandiosity, this does not put the court at ease
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has made significant investment in the Integrity Section of the Passport Service to enhance fraud detection and prevention,” said a spokesperson. “Instances of suspected passport fraud are referred to An Garda Síochána for investigation and possible prosecution.”
Taylor, who has a criminal history, has also claimed to be a billionaire because of investments in Bitcoin.
“Even if these lofty claims are simply a product of Taylor’s propensity for grandiosity, this does not put the court at ease,” noted the judge. “Rather, Taylor’s tendency to exaggerate and alter his stories suggest a lack of reliability that lends itself to evading his obligations in this court.”
Mr Taylor used a company called Legacy Benefit Holdings in the UK to help perpetrate his alleged fraud. Filings for that company show that a David Stafford was a director from 2018 to 2020, when it was voluntarily dissolved. Mr Stafford’s nationality is listed as Irish on company documents.
He was also the director of other companies in the UK, where he was listed as being Irish.
Fake Irish passports have been used in a number of high-profile incidents over the past number of years.
Most recently, Dubai princess Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, the daughter of Emirati politician and ruler of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktou, reportedly paid between $200,000 and $300,000 for a fake Irish passport which she was using to try to flee the emirate in 2018.
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