TORTURED TYCOON 
Knee-cap injury treated as he says captors showed him pics of other 'dead' men and said 'You're next'MYSTERY MAN: Locals did not even know that Kevin Michael McGeever had gone missing
Further bizarre details have emerged about the kidnapped tycoon, Kevin Michael McGeever, who is recovering in hospital after claiming he was held hostage in a shipping container for eight months. He is being treated for a fractured knee-cap in hospital, among other injuries and malnutrition, indicating he may have been tortured during his eight-month ordeal.
Mr McGeever (68), who used to own a property development company in Dubai, was discovered in a dishevelled state by a couple driving home near Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, on Tuesday night. Gardai are expected to formally quiz him in the coming days after he is released from hospital in Mullingar, where he is expected to remain until the middle of the week.
The word 'thief' was carved with a knife into his forehead, with sources saying the scar had healed. He has told gardai that the IRA and Russian mafia kidnapped him. It's also emerged that McGeever, who owns a €3million mansion in Craughwell, Co. Galway, is being sued in the High Court and also lost another High Court case earlier this year.
VitalGardai are also enquiring into companies run by him, including KMM International Properties which was at one time based in Dubai. The only number on McGeever's mobile phone when he was recovered on a small country road could be a vital clue for gardai. They have already spoken to the man who owns the number in their search for what happened to the 68-year-old businessman since he disappeared over eight months ago.
PLUSH: Mansion was built in 2005 but there are no floors or furnishings
One of those who found him, Catherine Vallely, has already spoken about McGeever's pathetic appearance and her failed attempts to find a number from directory enquiries for a friend of his. But she has given gardai further details of another call made to the only number on the phone. That call was to a man who Mr McGeever clearly knew. He told him: "I can't tell you much in front of these people."
McGeever wanted to arrange to meet the man in a hotel, but Ms Vallely decided no hotel would let him inside its front door in his condition. As McGeever didn't know where he was, she took the phone and spoke to the man on the number.She got the impression the man she was speaking to lived somewhere in the Midlands and she suggested that she could take Mr McGeever on to Carrick-on-Shannon, where a meeting might be arranged.
LUXURY: Gates to driveway at ‘Nirvana’
"I thought he was thumbing for a lift, as many people do," she recalled. "I stopped and picked him up and I was really surprised when he told me three men had thrown him out of a van wrapped only in a sheet."
By the time the call ended, Ms Vallely's partner, Peter Rehill, who was driving, was in Ballinamore. They pulled up at a Garda station where a female garda offered Mr McGeever tea and biscuits and later discovered he was reported missing at Gort Garda station, Co. Galway, last May.
"He had no idea where he was or what time or date it was," added Mr Rehill. "He was in a bad shape, he was like a skeleton."
McGeever, who had a long beard and overgrown fingernails, has told gardaí he was abducted and held in a cargo container for the last eight months. Staff at the hospital informed gardai he had marks on his wrists and toes that indicated he had been tied up for some considerable time. He also told gardai he had been beaten and had suffered broken bones. He also claimed he had been shown pictures of other people in the container by his captors who had then told him that they were all dead, and that he would be next.
One senior garda officer observed: "It's looking more and more like he was held against his will for the eight months since he was reported missing."
At his opulent mansion, 'Nirvana', in Craughwell, Co. Galway, there's no question that McGeever, originally from Swinford, Co.Mayo, was a very wealthy man. No expense was spared on the lavish €3m property in the middle of nowhere - just deepening the mystery surrounding the man.
Eight-foot high electric gates feature stained-glass detail, and a separate stone annex with a clock tower sports a fully-furnished gym. An EC120 helicopter he flew bore his initials - KMM - the name he also used for the oil, property and aviation companies he fronted. His fleet of top-ofthe- range cars included a Porsche 911 GT2 and two Hummers.
But behind the façade, the Sunday World can reveal that Kevin Michael McGeever was a man under serious pressure.
"Police in Dubai want to question him about an investment deal," a source told us.
Judgement was given against him and his company KMM in the High Court last May in a case brought by a Cathal Brady. He's also personally being sued in the High Court in Dublin by legal firm Eversheds. Because the case is in the High Court it means the sum being sought against him is at least €40,000. And although a stone over the front door states his house was built in 2005, there are no floors or any furnishings inside the house he was living in. In the kitchen, a rail of clothes and a bath robe suggest someone was living in the one finished room in the house, although the floor has yet to be fitted.
Migrant
The Sunday World also understands that McGeever's wide business dealings g back to 1998-2000 in the United States and Liechtenstein. As part of his business selling luxury properties in the Gulf, McGeever conducted property deals at the Mullingar Park Hotel, where he was known as 'the Yank' due to a pronounced American accent.
McGeever's partner, Siobhan O'Callaghan has not been to see him in hospital, the Sunday World understands. She reported him missing to Gort Garda Station "in as much as telling us he hadn't turned up for something", our source stated. It's understood that Ms O'Callaghan has been living in an apartment in Clontarf, Dublin.
"If there was a request for a ransom, we never knew about it," a garda source claimed. "If a ransom has been paid, we know absolutely nothing about that."
It is understood that McGeever's condition has improved since he was admitted to Mullingar General Hospital, where he is being treated for malnutrition. Gardai are collecting CCTV footage in a bid to establish what happened to Mr McGeever. If you have any information, call the Garda confidential number at 1800 666 111.
