Gardaí trying to unravel the case of businessman Kevin Michael McGeever have begun an international trawl of his business interests in other jurisdictions in a bid to establish the identities of anyone who may have wanted to harm him.
While his property-based dealings are vast, detectives in the Republic are expected to focus their attention on his business interests in Germany, the US and Dubai.
A number of projects with which he was involved have run into difficulties in recent years, with some of those involving multimillion-euro investments from Irish people and business people from other parts of the world, including Dubai, the US and Germany.
Gardaí are now trying to establish if any of those investors may have blamed Mr McGeever for investments that did not go according to plan and may have held him against his will for the past eight months, as he has claimed.
They are also hoping a trawl of his foreign business dealings may throw up some information that might explain his disappearance before he reappeared in Co Leitrim last Tuesday night.
Sources said he had been in a confused state and had spoken to gardaí only very briefly.
Limited accounts
It is not clear if the very limited accounts he has relayed of his abduction from his home last May and his apparent false imprisonment and mistreatment since then is based entirely on fact or has been generated due to the shock, trauma and confusion he has suffered.
He was found by passersby as he was wandering on the road between Swanlinbar and Ballinamore in Co Leitrim.
He was in a dishevelled state and was disorientated, with the word “thief” inked on his forehead.
His only possession was a new mobile phone with one number on it.
He claimed to have been kidnapped from his home in Craughwell, Co Galway, on May 27th last year and held in a dark room by kidnappers before being driven to a mystery location and released.
He has been in Mullingar General Hospital since reappearing last week and, given his poor physical condition, gardaí have not been able to speak to him at length.
He has lost several stone in weight and has a number of injuries, including a fractured knee.
When found he was dressed in a plastic bag and was wearing no shoes.
Missing since May
His partner had reported him missing last May but, with no indication of where he might be or suggestion that he may have been kidnapped or otherwise harmed, the investigation into his disappearance did not take any set direction.
Gardaí are hoping to interview him as soon as his health improves sufficiently.
