Unknown Irish couple now owe $1 billion to banks

Property speculation in D.C., London ends in grief

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Sanctuary Buildings in London - one of the expensive properties the couple bought in to

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An Irish couple owe a staggering $1 billion to banks after a property spending spree that included trophy buildings in Washington, Stockholm and London.

Brian,58, and Mary Pat O’Donnell, 56, a lawyer and a doctor respectively owe $1 billion dollars to banks all around the world including here in the US it has been revealed.

The couple , who have never featured in the media until now, are from the exclusive Killiney area of Dublin and were neighbors of Bono and lived the high life until it all came crashing down.

 The couple bought Sanctuary Buildings in London right beside the Houses of Parliament. In Washington they bought an office building just a few blocks from the White House.

The Washington property was described as having  "sweeping views of the White House, the Monuments and the Potomac River".

They set a record paying $867 per square foot for it.

In Stockholm they bought the largest office block in the city.

All their purchases were based on massive bank loans given them by Irish and foreign banks with very little of their own capital.

They also bought two buildings in London's Canary Wharf  for a combibed $320 million. The buildings housed the corporate headquarters of Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

Back in Dublin The O'Donnells still live in a dazzling clifftop home near  Bono.

The couple are almost unknown and have kept a very low profile. It is only now that banks are pursuing them for unpaid loans that they have become public.

"Most people in Dublin wouldn't know what they looked like. They are an extremely private family and would have hoped to have continued to conduct their business in private," a source told The Guardian newspaper.

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