{"id":28346,"date":"2025-08-28T08:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/28346\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:43:10","slug":"french-film-star-is-duped-out-of-e7million-by-fake-irish-aristocrat-in-alleged-luxury-yacht-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/28346\/","title":{"rendered":"French film star is ‘duped out of \u20ac7million’ by ‘fake Irish aristocrat’ in alleged luxury yacht scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PERKIN AMALARAJ, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 20:50 EDT, 27 August 2025 | Updated: 20:52 EDT, 27 August 2025 <\/p>\n

One of France<\/a>‘s top film stars is suing an allegedly fake Irish aristocrat who he claims scammed him out of millions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dany Boon, 59, has made allegations that\u00a0Thierry Fialek-Birles duped him out of nearly \u20ac7million (\u00a36.04million) involving luxury yachts, offshore accounts and claims of connections to Monaco’s royal family<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boon claims in a case that will be heard next month in France that\u00a0Thierry Fialek-Birles passed himself off an an Oxford-educated ‘Irish lord from an ancient family’ to scam him at least twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Birles, who Boon says charmed his way into the\u00a0Royal Cork Yacht Club in Ireland, is alleged to have convinced him in November 2021 to hire him to oversee the renovation of a recently purchased yacht valued at \u20ac3.5million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Birles allegedly boosted his credentials by claiming to be a master mariner and a maritime lawyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After being wooed, Boon transferred \u20ac2.2million to\u00a0South Seas Merchants Mariners Ltd. (SSMM), a Dublin-registered firm that Birles claimed his family had run for more than a century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just a few months later, Birles allegedly persuaded Boon to invest a further \u20ac4.5million into a made-up ‘Irish Central Bank’ scheme that he claimed would offer tax-free returns of 3.25% per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boon is said to have become suspicious of Birles following an anonymous tip-off from someone claiming to be a past victim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dany <\/p>\n

Dany Boon (pictured), one of France ‘s top film stars, is suing an allegedly fake Irish aristocrat who he claims scammed him out of millions<\/p>\n

\"Thierry <\/p>\n

Thierry Fialek-Birles (pictured) allegedly duped him out of nearly \u20ac7million (\u00a36.04million) involving luxury yachts, offshore accounts and claims of connections to Monaco’s royal family\u00a0<\/p>\n

After he asked for his money back, Birles claimed\u00a0SSMM had been sold to an Italian family and told Boon to sue them for his mission money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Birles is said to have then vanished, forcing Boon to hire two private detectives to track him down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They reportedly revealed that the so-called ‘lord’ held at least two passports and ran several firms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was also said to have addresses in Paris, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Riviera, Monaco, the West Indian island of St Kitts, and Guadeloupe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also revealed he went by another alias, Commodore Sir Thierry Waterford-Mandeville of the West Indies Yacht Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boon lawyered up, hiring top barrister Rossa Fannins, who later became Ireland’s attorney general, and set about suing Birles in Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dublin’s High Court froze Birles’ assets three years ago, impounding a yacht and a classic motorboat, while another boat was seized in Genoa.<\/p>\n

Last February, he was arrested in Panama on an Interpol warrant before being extradited to France six months later, where he remains in custody.<\/p>\n

Boon’s trial on charges of fraud, money laundering and forgery opens in Nice on September 26.<\/p>\n

\"Boon <\/p>\n

Boon claims in a case that will be heard next month in France that Thierry Fialek-Birles passed himself off an an Oxford-educated ‘Irish lord from an ancient family’<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After being wooed, Boon transferred \u20ac2.2million to South Seas Merchants Mariners Ltd. (SSMM), a Dublin-registered firm that Birles claimed his family had run for more than a century<\/p>\n

Despite the allegations, Birles has continued to run a website promoting his seafaring experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was described in a post this month as ‘running his sea-weathered hands along the restored hull of a yacht’.<\/p>\n

The post adds that he ‘believes in outside-the-box thinking to conquer new markets for businesses, always in a tax-efficient manner’.<\/p>\n

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\n French film star is ‘duped out of \u20ac7million’ by ‘fake Irish aristocrat’ in alleged luxury yacht scam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By PERKIN AMALARAJ, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 20:50 EDT, 27 August 2025 | Updated: 20:52 EDT, 27 August…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,118,18,117,2220,19,17,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-28346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}