Irish man denies defrauding elderly US heiress fiancee of millions

She claims younger man took $4 million, he says she is lying

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KERRY O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

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Clare native Thomas Queally

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Cork native Thomas Queally is denying allegations lodged against him by New Yorker Elisa Rodino that he stole $4 million from her. He is also denying the allegations that he was engaged to Rodino and had been living a double life and lying to her. She isin her sixties while he is in his mid forties.

The Irish Times reports on the court battle between Queally and Rodino which began in 2012. Last month the High Court heard claims that Rodino ,a real estate heiress was a vulnerable woman who had been taken advantage of by Queally, whom she met in 2007.

Rodino met Queally in 2007, through her sister. They were engaged in 2011. She stated in an affidavit he “started stealing money from me at a early stage in our relationship”.

Queally had helped her manage her New York property portfolio. She called him a “charming and attractive man” and admitted she had been taken in by his attention.

Read More: New York heiress claims her younger Irish lover scammed her out of millions

Rodino claims that last August she agreed to put Queally’s name on a deposit account of hers that had $5 million, in order to aid Queally in a court case against a former employer. 

The court heard that Rodino claims Queally asked her to do this because it would show he and Rodino, who had inherited a sizeable property portfolio from her late father, were a couple and the work he did on her properties was not a contract of employment.

Queally has since denied that he and Rodino were ever engaged.

Rodino claims Queally was due to meet her in Spain last October but never showed up. When she arrived back in the US she discovered money had been transferred to the bank in Ennis and to a US bank account.

The High Court in Dublin heard on Thursday that Queally’s lawyers rejected claims that Queally had transferred money from a joint bank account in the US to his bank in Ireland without Rodino’s consent.

Rodino claims that Queally transferred $2 million from her account to a bank account held in Ennis, Co Clare under the Permanent TSB bank.

However, on Thursday at the High Court, Patricia Hill, for Queally, said that on October 18th Rodino had signed a document, in the presence of a notary, at a New York bank saying that any funds transferred from a joint account to Queally’s account would be done so with her full permission. 

Hill said Rodino had failed to mention this and made no mention of it when seeking the freezing orders last month. The freezing orders were arranged by Rodino’s lawyers last month and prevented Queally from reducing funds from below $2.1 million held in a bank account at Permanent TSB in Ennis.

Ross Gorman, for Rodino, said any application to set aside the freezing orders would be opposed and he wanted the injunction to remain pending the outcome of the full hearing.

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