A Porthmadog man is facing a long prison sentence after admitting being part of a $7.8m money laundering and fraud conspiracy.

Michael Kinane, 41, right, admitted a charge of conspiring to launder nearly £6m, as well as three charges of fraud by false representation.

He will be sentenced at Caernarfon Crown Court on 24 January and has been remanded in custody, with a judge warning that he was facing a lengthy prison sentence.

North Wales Police arrested Kinane in August as he left a plane at Gatwick Airport after being alerted to the multi-million dollar fraud by Action Fraud, the UK’s National Reporting Centre for fraud.

Kinane, formerly of High Street in Porthmadog, had admitted being part of a plot that put money through a series of foreign currency accounts as part of a ‘business e-mail compromise fraud’. He also admitted fraud by dishonestly making a representation as a false business owner to get an Audi car, a Land Rover, and a Mercedes car.

DS Arwel Hughes, who led the North Wales Police investigation, which was launched in November 2018, said it had involved agencies across the world – including the FBI – with a significant amount of evidence being provided by US law enforcement agencies.

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