Carlow entrepreneur pleads guilty to recklessness in annual return filing

Tom Tuite

An entrepreneur has pleaded guilty to being reckless about the filing of an annual return to the Companies Registration Office (CRO).

Company director Illann Power (30) Co Carlow, was charged last year following an investigation by the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) and appeared again at Dublin District Court on Thursday.

He has faced three charges of providing false information contrary to Section 876 of the Companies Act 2014, knowingly or recklessly furnishing information to an electronic filing agent from 2014 to 2017.

Power was accompanied to court by his solicitor Peter Connolly and entered a guilty plea to one charge of being reckless as to whether a B1 filing and accompanying documentation was made for the financial year 2014/2015; with the remaining charges to be withdrawn.

Judge Bryan Smyth set the case down for sentencing with facts and mitigation to be heard in four weeks.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had directed that the matter was suitable to be dealt with at the District Court and not the Circuit Court, which has broader sentencing powers.

The District Court has accepted jurisdiction to hear the case.

Power was previously a founder of spirits company Incubrands, which Bacardi later acquired. He later co-created Nohovation, a start-up venture fund and investment firm Illann Power Companies.

The charges follow an investigation by the CEA into Dublin Distillers & Co Teoranta about filing B1 Annual Returns with the CRO.

Initially, he had been granted bail with strict conditions, including signing on daily at a local Garda station and surrendering his travel documents. 

However, those conditions were later relaxed to allow Power to work in America after he had been offered a US$250,000 per annum job.

He was allowed to keep his passport and green card and to move to the US.

However, his solicitor had said his client had every intention of returning to Ireland to face the proceedings.