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19 May 24
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Irish pharma tycoon’s son linked to convicted Chinese fraudster in huge money-laundering scam
Through his lawyers, Galway man Michael Burke Jr has denied any involvement in scheme
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael James Burke
Michael James Burke
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael James Burke
Michael James Burke
thumbnail: Michael James Burke
thumbnail: Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
thumbnail: Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
thumbnail: Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
thumbnail: Michael Burke Jnr
Rory Mulholland
Today at 02:30
The Dubai-based son of one of Ireland’s wealthiest and most highly respected business and bloodstock families has been implicated in an international money- laundering scam that involved huge sums in cash and cryptocurrency, as well as properties in the Middle East.
Michael Burke Jr (43), originally from Galway, has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme, according to prosecution evidence heard by a court in London earlier this year in the case of a former Chinese takeaway worker convicted of money laundering.
It is important to stress that Burke, who denies any wrongdoing, was neither a defendant nor a witness in that trial, and thus not able to respond to the accusations made against him.
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
He is a son of Michael Hilary Burke, the Loughrea vet who built up one of the country’s most successful pharma companies, which was sold recently for €300m.
Michael Burke Sr, now 76, famously got a loan of IR£5,000 from a bank in 1978 to buy a property on the main street of his native Loughrea, where he opened an animal health centre.
Over the next four decades, he built up the business into Ireland’s biggest manufacturer of generic medicines for humans and animals.
His son worked for Chanelle Pharma for several years before going to the Middle East to seek his fortune.
Burke Jr’s sister, Chanelle, is married to the jockey Tony McCoy, who rode a record 4,358 winners over his career. A former ‘dragon’ on the RTÉ television series Dragons’ Den, her most recent venture is the CBD firm Pureis.
The Burke clan is steeped in the world of horse-racing.
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
“It runs in the family, it’s in the blood,” Burke Jr told a United Arab Emirates racing magazine last December.
It described him as a “walking, talking equine encyclopaedia” whose knowledge of horses “will leave you mesmerised”.
The Burke family “own some of the UAE’s best locally trained thoroughbreds”, the magazine pointed out.
Burke Jr explained that their six horses are actually owned by his Iranian wife, Negar Burke, and by Michael Hilary, “so myself and the kids are just representing them”.
Asked in the interview what he did professionally in Dubai apart from racing, Burke Jr said he had a real estate and travel concierge business.
“All the hard stuff,” he said, laughing.
Michael James Burke evidently shares his relatives’ drive and ambition.
After completing a business degree at UCD in 2000, it was his work as a supply chain manager for Chanelle Pharma that first took him to Dubai.
There he took a majority stake in Arabian Escapes, a firm offering property management and rentals, whose website has now been taken down and whose phone goes unanswered.
He later got involved with Executive Expatriate Relocations, now called EER Middle East, which says he no longer has any connection with it.
In one newspaper interview about his real-estate adventures, Burke Jr said customers could pay his Dubai property firm in a rather unusual way.
“At Arabian Escapes, we just want to offer clients the opportunity to pay in cryptos and we’ll convert it,” he told Arabian Business in 2018.
He noted that the new currency did not have the support of local banks “who are cautious, and also afraid from an anti-money-laundering perspective”.
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael Burke Jnr
The reason Michael Burke Jr is again in the headlines is because of the trial in March at Southwark Crown Court of Jian Wen (42).
A Chinese national, Wen moved to the UK in 2007. She originally worked at a Chinese takeaway and lived above the premises. In the tax year 2015-16, she declared gross earnings from her restaurant work of just £12,800.
Within a few years, however, Wen’s fortunes had changed. She was living in a house worth millions in an affluent part of north London and had a cryptocurrency account.
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police eventually resulted in the seizure of bitcoin worth more than £2bn from her.
It was the sheer amount of the currency, and the lack of any evidence to show it was legitimately acquired, that led to the investigation that culminated in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) bringing charges of money laundering.
Wen was not suspected of acquiring the bitcoin, which “in whole or in part came from a massive fraud carried out in China”, according to the prosecution in the case.
Her role was said to have been in “laundering” the cryptocurrency — turning it into cash and other assets, including properties.
The Chinese woman with whom Wen was working had suffered a setback on September 5, 2018, when the pair arrived at Dublin Airport on an Aer Lingus flight from Vienna.
They were stopped by customs officials and Wen’s accomplice was detained, partly as a result of suspicions that she was engaged in money laundering.
Wen sold 92 bitcoins to Burke Jr, worth over £2m at that time
Ultimately, she was refused entry to Ireland — though her intention was almost certainly to travel on to London — and was sent back to Vienna. Wen returned to London alone. Next day, she did a Google search for “do money laundering criminal offence Ireland”.
According to the prosecution case at her trial, by this time — September 2018 — her failed attempt to buy property in the UK had “led Wen to change tack and become involved with Michael Burke”.
The Irishman was offering a number of services to clients, including the private purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, and client accounts into which the proceeds of the sale of crypto could be paid.
“He also offered a pre-paid ‘black card’ service so that clients could access the money held in their client accounts,” the prosecution said.
“This involved the provision of a pre-paid card, outside the banking system, which can be topped up and used to make payment for goods.”
Wen has always insisted she simply never knew the crypto she was dealing in was the proceeds of crime, and at one stage she told Burke, the court heard, that “no crime has been committed, no need to worry”.
Over time, she would sell 92 bitcoins to Burke Jr, worth over £2m at that time (its value today would be in excess of €5.5m). The proceeds went into her Dubai bank accounts and as deposits into client accounts in two of Burke Jr’s companies.
Wen and Burke Jr met at the Marriott Hotel in Zurich on October 8, 2018. She quickly decided she wanted to become a client of one of Burke’s companies.
When she told him she did not know how to describe the origin of her wealth, he allegedly said it was not important.
“Between you and me — what is the real source, and I will think of something,” he messaged her on October 15, the jury at the London trial was told.
When Wen filled in an application form to become a client, she described the source of her cash as “family wealth”.
In a conversation on October 20, Burke Jr is said to have suggested he had ideas as to how he could help Wen “create” the source of her wealth.
Burke Jr was not shy about mentioning his family connections
The prosecution says the first idea he suggested to Wen was a Scottish scheme. He allegedly said: “I have a project that I use to help people create source of wealth.”
That “project” involved three parcels of land he owned in Scotland.
The court heard that Burke Jr told Wen: “We get people to give us money in cash or bitcoin, then we give them a loan of their own money, which they use to make 100 per cent profit over two years.”
The three plots were advertised on the website of a firm called Alba Group. Burke Jr was listed as chief executive on the Alba Group website, which also carried a photo of his father Michael Hilary Burke, describing him as an “early-stage investor”.
The website was taken down earlier this year, and attempts to reach the Guernsey-based Alba Group by phone and email have been unsuccessful.
Lawyers for Michael Hilary Burke have said he “provided some initial capital to his son [for Alba Group]. Before March 2024, Mr Burke was not aware of his name and picture being included on the Alba Group website, nor has he ever consented to such inclusion.
"Mr Burke has no current or historic involvement with the Alba Group.”
At Southwark Crown Court, prosecutor Gillian Jones told the jury the land-investment scheme Burke Jr had offered to Wen “stands out starkly as being something that’s fraudulent” and she claimed it was a “money-laundering scheme, plain and simple”.
In April 2019, Wen and Burke Jr were in contact again and met in a hotel in Mayfair.
The prosecution has speculated that they may have discussed how to convert bitcoin into cash or property, which was proving tricky for Wen in the UK.
She decided to buy property in Dubai, and the Crown Prosecution Service says Burke discussed this with her on July 24, 2019.
The following month, they met in Dubai, and she gave him power of attorney to set up companies and buy property in her name.
In October, she bought a property at Marina Arcade in Dubai for about £279,000, and then the following month another one at Bay Central Tower for a little less.
“The two properties bought were immediately rented out and then, within a year, one was sold,” the prosecutor of Wen said. “This was simply a way of converting bitcoin into cash and cleaning it — laundering it, in other words.”
Once again, it should be stressed that Burke Jr was neither present nor represented at the case, so we never heard his side of the story.
Through his lawyers, Burke Jr has denied he was involved in money laundering.
The prosecution laid out further evidence that the Galway man and Wen met in London in late 2019 — at the Mayfair hotel and at Scott’s bar.
It was alleged that they discussed pre-paid cards, on which Burke would put money as a way of paying for bitcoin. These cards could then be used in shops, like a credit card.
Ultimately, Wen was convicted on one count of money laundering on March 20. She will be sentenced later this month. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts.
The one count for which she was convicted was partly based on her sale of 92 bitcoins through Burke Jr.
Last month, another Chinese woman was charged in the UK with two counts of criminal possession of cryptocurrency. The woman, who denies the charges, did not apply for bail.
According to the prosecution at Southwark Crown Court, Burke Jr was not shy about mentioning his family connections during his dealings with Wen.
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
He is said to have told her about being the brother-in-law of Tony McCoy and also told her that his sister, Chanelle, was a business partner of Queen Camilla’s daughter, Laura Lopes.
Chanelle McCoy did, indeed, establish a fashion store in Berkshire with Lopes, although it is now defunct.
Last week, Burke Jr’s lawyers told the Sunday Independent that Chanelle McCoy “is not, and has never been, ‘in business’ with our client”.
Burke Jr also told Wen about his family’s involvement in horse racing and pharmaceuticals.
“My father lives in Eaton Square, if you want to meet him as well,” he is said to have messaged her. Eaton Square in London is a desirable address that has been home to prime ministers, film stars, royals and oligarchs.
Burke Sr’s lawyers have said the first he heard of the Wen proceedings was through an article in the Financial Times, and he has “no involvement or knowledge whatsoever of the matters that were the subject of the proceedings”.
His son’s legal team have also stressed that no family members have any involvement in these matters. Any accusation of money laundering against their client is “vigorously denied”.
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Through his lawyers, Galway man Michael Burke Jr has denied any involvement in scheme
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael James Burke
Michael James Burke
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael James Burke
Michael James Burke
thumbnail: Michael James Burke
thumbnail: Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
thumbnail: Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
thumbnail: Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
thumbnail: Michael Burke Jnr
Rory Mulholland
Today at 02:30
The Dubai-based son of one of Ireland’s wealthiest and most highly respected business and bloodstock families has been implicated in an international money- laundering scam that involved huge sums in cash and cryptocurrency, as well as properties in the Middle East.
Michael Burke Jr (43), originally from Galway, has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme, according to prosecution evidence heard by a court in London earlier this year in the case of a former Chinese takeaway worker convicted of money laundering.
It is important to stress that Burke, who denies any wrongdoing, was neither a defendant nor a witness in that trial, and thus not able to respond to the accusations made against him.
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
Michael Burke Jr has been accused of involvement in a “starkly fraudulent” scheme
He is a son of Michael Hilary Burke, the Loughrea vet who built up one of the country’s most successful pharma companies, which was sold recently for €300m.
Michael Burke Sr, now 76, famously got a loan of IR£5,000 from a bank in 1978 to buy a property on the main street of his native Loughrea, where he opened an animal health centre.
Over the next four decades, he built up the business into Ireland’s biggest manufacturer of generic medicines for humans and animals.
His son worked for Chanelle Pharma for several years before going to the Middle East to seek his fortune.
Burke Jr’s sister, Chanelle, is married to the jockey Tony McCoy, who rode a record 4,358 winners over his career. A former ‘dragon’ on the RTÉ television series Dragons’ Den, her most recent venture is the CBD firm Pureis.
The Burke clan is steeped in the world of horse-racing.
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
Michael Hilary Burke Snr, now 76, founded Chanelle Pharma in the late 1970s
“It runs in the family, it’s in the blood,” Burke Jr told a United Arab Emirates racing magazine last December.
It described him as a “walking, talking equine encyclopaedia” whose knowledge of horses “will leave you mesmerised”.
The Burke family “own some of the UAE’s best locally trained thoroughbreds”, the magazine pointed out.
Burke Jr explained that their six horses are actually owned by his Iranian wife, Negar Burke, and by Michael Hilary, “so myself and the kids are just representing them”.
Asked in the interview what he did professionally in Dubai apart from racing, Burke Jr said he had a real estate and travel concierge business.
“All the hard stuff,” he said, laughing.
Michael James Burke evidently shares his relatives’ drive and ambition.
After completing a business degree at UCD in 2000, it was his work as a supply chain manager for Chanelle Pharma that first took him to Dubai.
There he took a majority stake in Arabian Escapes, a firm offering property management and rentals, whose website has now been taken down and whose phone goes unanswered.
He later got involved with Executive Expatriate Relocations, now called EER Middle East, which says he no longer has any connection with it.
In one newspaper interview about his real-estate adventures, Burke Jr said customers could pay his Dubai property firm in a rather unusual way.
“At Arabian Escapes, we just want to offer clients the opportunity to pay in cryptos and we’ll convert it,” he told Arabian Business in 2018.
He noted that the new currency did not have the support of local banks “who are cautious, and also afraid from an anti-money-laundering perspective”.
Michael Burke Jnr
Michael Burke Jnr
The reason Michael Burke Jr is again in the headlines is because of the trial in March at Southwark Crown Court of Jian Wen (42).
A Chinese national, Wen moved to the UK in 2007. She originally worked at a Chinese takeaway and lived above the premises. In the tax year 2015-16, she declared gross earnings from her restaurant work of just £12,800.
Within a few years, however, Wen’s fortunes had changed. She was living in a house worth millions in an affluent part of north London and had a cryptocurrency account.
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police eventually resulted in the seizure of bitcoin worth more than £2bn from her.
It was the sheer amount of the currency, and the lack of any evidence to show it was legitimately acquired, that led to the investigation that culminated in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) bringing charges of money laundering.
Wen was not suspected of acquiring the bitcoin, which “in whole or in part came from a massive fraud carried out in China”, according to the prosecution in the case.
Her role was said to have been in “laundering” the cryptocurrency — turning it into cash and other assets, including properties.
The Chinese woman with whom Wen was working had suffered a setback on September 5, 2018, when the pair arrived at Dublin Airport on an Aer Lingus flight from Vienna.
They were stopped by customs officials and Wen’s accomplice was detained, partly as a result of suspicions that she was engaged in money laundering.
Wen sold 92 bitcoins to Burke Jr, worth over £2m at that time
Ultimately, she was refused entry to Ireland — though her intention was almost certainly to travel on to London — and was sent back to Vienna. Wen returned to London alone. Next day, she did a Google search for “do money laundering criminal offence Ireland”.
According to the prosecution case at her trial, by this time — September 2018 — her failed attempt to buy property in the UK had “led Wen to change tack and become involved with Michael Burke”.
The Irishman was offering a number of services to clients, including the private purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, and client accounts into which the proceeds of the sale of crypto could be paid.
“He also offered a pre-paid ‘black card’ service so that clients could access the money held in their client accounts,” the prosecution said.
“This involved the provision of a pre-paid card, outside the banking system, which can be topped up and used to make payment for goods.”
Wen has always insisted she simply never knew the crypto she was dealing in was the proceeds of crime, and at one stage she told Burke, the court heard, that “no crime has been committed, no need to worry”.
Over time, she would sell 92 bitcoins to Burke Jr, worth over £2m at that time (its value today would be in excess of €5.5m). The proceeds went into her Dubai bank accounts and as deposits into client accounts in two of Burke Jr’s companies.
Wen and Burke Jr met at the Marriott Hotel in Zurich on October 8, 2018. She quickly decided she wanted to become a client of one of Burke’s companies.
When she told him she did not know how to describe the origin of her wealth, he allegedly said it was not important.
“Between you and me — what is the real source, and I will think of something,” he messaged her on October 15, the jury at the London trial was told.
When Wen filled in an application form to become a client, she described the source of her cash as “family wealth”.
In a conversation on October 20, Burke Jr is said to have suggested he had ideas as to how he could help Wen “create” the source of her wealth.
Burke Jr was not shy about mentioning his family connections
The prosecution says the first idea he suggested to Wen was a Scottish scheme. He allegedly said: “I have a project that I use to help people create source of wealth.”
That “project” involved three parcels of land he owned in Scotland.
The court heard that Burke Jr told Wen: “We get people to give us money in cash or bitcoin, then we give them a loan of their own money, which they use to make 100 per cent profit over two years.”
The three plots were advertised on the website of a firm called Alba Group. Burke Jr was listed as chief executive on the Alba Group website, which also carried a photo of his father Michael Hilary Burke, describing him as an “early-stage investor”.
The website was taken down earlier this year, and attempts to reach the Guernsey-based Alba Group by phone and email have been unsuccessful.
Lawyers for Michael Hilary Burke have said he “provided some initial capital to his son [for Alba Group]. Before March 2024, Mr Burke was not aware of his name and picture being included on the Alba Group website, nor has he ever consented to such inclusion.
"Mr Burke has no current or historic involvement with the Alba Group.”
At Southwark Crown Court, prosecutor Gillian Jones told the jury the land-investment scheme Burke Jr had offered to Wen “stands out starkly as being something that’s fraudulent” and she claimed it was a “money-laundering scheme, plain and simple”.
In April 2019, Wen and Burke Jr were in contact again and met in a hotel in Mayfair.
The prosecution has speculated that they may have discussed how to convert bitcoin into cash or property, which was proving tricky for Wen in the UK.
She decided to buy property in Dubai, and the Crown Prosecution Service says Burke discussed this with her on July 24, 2019.
The following month, they met in Dubai, and she gave him power of attorney to set up companies and buy property in her name.
In October, she bought a property at Marina Arcade in Dubai for about £279,000, and then the following month another one at Bay Central Tower for a little less.
“The two properties bought were immediately rented out and then, within a year, one was sold,” the prosecutor of Wen said. “This was simply a way of converting bitcoin into cash and cleaning it — laundering it, in other words.”
Once again, it should be stressed that Burke Jr was neither present nor represented at the case, so we never heard his side of the story.
Through his lawyers, Burke Jr has denied he was involved in money laundering.
The prosecution laid out further evidence that the Galway man and Wen met in London in late 2019 — at the Mayfair hotel and at Scott’s bar.
It was alleged that they discussed pre-paid cards, on which Burke would put money as a way of paying for bitcoin. These cards could then be used in shops, like a credit card.
Ultimately, Wen was convicted on one count of money laundering on March 20. She will be sentenced later this month. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts.
The one count for which she was convicted was partly based on her sale of 92 bitcoins through Burke Jr.
Last month, another Chinese woman was charged in the UK with two counts of criminal possession of cryptocurrency. The woman, who denies the charges, did not apply for bail.
According to the prosecution at Southwark Crown Court, Burke Jr was not shy about mentioning his family connections during his dealings with Wen.
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
Burke's sister Chanelle and brother-in-law Tony McCoy. Photo: Getty
He is said to have told her about being the brother-in-law of Tony McCoy and also told her that his sister, Chanelle, was a business partner of Queen Camilla’s daughter, Laura Lopes.
Chanelle McCoy did, indeed, establish a fashion store in Berkshire with Lopes, although it is now defunct.
Last week, Burke Jr’s lawyers told the Sunday Independent that Chanelle McCoy “is not, and has never been, ‘in business’ with our client”.
Burke Jr also told Wen about his family’s involvement in horse racing and pharmaceuticals.
“My father lives in Eaton Square, if you want to meet him as well,” he is said to have messaged her. Eaton Square in London is a desirable address that has been home to prime ministers, film stars, royals and oligarchs.
Burke Sr’s lawyers have said the first he heard of the Wen proceedings was through an article in the Financial Times, and he has “no involvement or knowledge whatsoever of the matters that were the subject of the proceedings”.
His son’s legal team have also stressed that no family members have any involvement in these matters. Any accusation of money laundering against their client is “vigorously denied”.
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‘Nuisance’ grandad using theft as his ‘full-time occupation’, judge says
Courts
Landscaper and exotic animal breeder bailed after €150k cocaine seizure in Dublin
Courts
Man (61) who may have lain dead for six months in Cork apartment was a ‘magical father’, funeral hears
The Indo Daily
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