{"id":306769,"date":"2026-02-19T20:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/306769\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:48:07","slug":"lawyers-for-company-of-ceo-who-allegedly-spent-firms-funds-on-homes-for-girlfriends-withdraw-from-case-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/306769\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers for company of CEO who allegedly spent firm\u2019s funds on homes for girlfriends withdraw from case \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Solicitors who represented a company whose chief executive allegedly spent the firm\u2019s money providing homes and jobs for his girlfriends, who had allegedly been screened through illicit websites, have withdrawn from the case, the High Court heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It came after a proposed settlement of a dispute with one of the company\u2019s executives was not proceeded with and the company\u2019s original lawyers decided to \u201ccome off record\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The case was brought by Jennifer O\u2019Carroll, chief operations officer of Limerick-based software group, HansaWorld, who had sought orders against the company lifting her suspension as director and company secretary and to stop alleged interference in her role as COO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/courts\/2026\/01\/20\/settlement-in-case-of-ceo-spending-firms-money-on-girlfriends-could-break-down-court-told\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Settlement in case of CEO spending firm\u2019s money on girlfriends could break down, court toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As part of her proceedings, O\u2019Carroll had made claims about the manner in which the group\u2019s CEO and majority shareholder, Karl Bohlin, had been running the business and what she considered was his \u201cextravagant personal spending\u201d using company funds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She claimed that since last spring, Bohlin had been primarily concerned with his love life and finding a girlfriend which he described as his \u201chighest priority, she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She claimed Bohlin used the company human resources \u201cto screen the girls from various illicit websites for suitability\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Negotiations took place between lawyers for both sides and eventually a settlement of the matter was agreed which would see the end of the court proceedings. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, when the settlement was signed on behalf of the company, it was not the one the lawyers had agreed but another version. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As a result, the company\u2019s lawyers said they would no longer be able to represent HansaWorld.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Thursday, Mair\u00e9ad McKenna, barrister for the solicitors, said the relationship between her client and the company appeared to have broken down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There had been difficulties in obtaining instructions and other difficulties in relation to the discussions which took place between the parties, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">New solicitors had agreed to represent the firm, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Judge Brian Cregan approved the application for the solicitors to come off record and noted a letter from the defendant that new solicitors would be coming on board and everything would be done to \u201cregularise the situation and inform the court\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The case now goes back to the normal court list to get a hearing date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Solicitors who represented a company whose chief executive allegedly spent the firm\u2019s money providing homes and jobs for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[28566,72,61,60,1634],"class_list":["post-306769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bob","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}