Irish bosses convicted of NY construction firm payroll fraud start jail terms today

Mr O’Sullivan was ordered to pay $1.276m (€1.28m) in restitution to the benefits’ funds. Mr O’Sullivan’s sister Helen, 63, the company payroll administrator, was also found guilty, but avoided jail. She is currently serving two years’ probation.

Both men were due to start their jail term on November 13, but New York District Court judge Pamela K Chen agreed to allow them spend Thanksgiving with their families. She denied their motions to remain on bail pending an appeal of their convictions and ordered them to surrender to prison today.

Their appeals are unlikely to be heard before spring at the earliest.

Mr Naughton’s request to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and two children outlined how it would be “a last long holiday weekend” with them, before presenting today at Fort Dix, a low-security federal prison in New Jersey.

Mr O’Sullivan, who has been spending time in Florida since stepping down from his role as president and CEO of Navillus, a company he co-founded with his siblings in the 1980s, is due to surrender today to FPC Pensacola, a minimum security prison camp in Florida. It’s considered one of the cushiest in the US, mainly for white collar crime.

Mr O’Sullivan has also been ordered to start making restitution payments from January 1. The judge rejected his request for a stay of restitution until the appeal had been heard. 

Mr O’Sullivan is the brother of Kevin O’Sullivan, 59, the developer behind plans for the €20m Prism office building in Cork City.

Foundations were laid but work stopped over a year ago. Kevin’s Tower Holdings Group also has planning permission for a skyscraper hotel on the former Port of Cork city site.

The development has not started nearly three years after permission was granted.