Former rugby star Donncha O’Callaghan has revealed he was a victim of the Custom House Capital scam that saw over 200 people swindled out of millions of euro.
Four members of the collapsed firm were jailed for terms of between one and six years last Friday after a court heard over €61m had been “improperly diverted” from the company.
Many victims lost their entire pensions and the 2FM breakfast presenter has admitted he was “ill informed” before he decided to put money into the company.
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Donncha said: “We spoke about how my mom had to scrap for every penny I was probably involved with this time of Celtic Tiger where money - was so easy to get a hold of.
“I think it’s a real cop out to say I took bad advice. I was ill informed — that lies with me.
“I took people’s experience in certain areas as if yeah that’s good enough for me because he knows it inside out whereas I’ve learned you have to know it inside out.”
Speaking on Sean O’Rourke’s new podcast, Insights with Sean O’Rourke, O’Callaghan said he is more “disappointed” with himself that he allowed it to happen to him.
He said: “I look at that whole scenario and I look at myself at that time, I’ll be honest with you I’m more disappointed with myself than anything else.
After being asked how much money he lost, O’Callaghan responded: “I’ll be honest, I was pissed off”.
He said he was “at the prime of my career” and he was “maxing out my pension contribution… over the course of six years.”
The whole scenario was a “hard lesson, but vital for me - you cannot offload responsibility for stuff like that. In a mad way I had a gut feeling before it. I wish I’d backed it.”
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