Two men jailed after €1m cash seized in Dublin hotel room

Eimear Dodd and Claire Henry

Two men caught with over one million in illicit cash have been jailed for a combined 11 years.

Vladislavs Temnis (55) and Ik Joo Kang (48) both pleaded guilty to possession of the proceeds of criminal conduct. They have no previous convictions here or in any other jurisdiction.

Detective Garda Sean Tyrrell gave evidence that the Dublin Crime Response Team had an operation in place on August 7th, 2025 after receiving confidential information about a rented Skoda vehicle.

The car was found in Donnybrook, stopped and searched. €197,760 cash, a black Reebok bag, and keys were seized. Temnis, the driver, was arrested.

As the car was being searched, gardaí saw a mobile phone in a cradle on the driver’s side. A map was open on the phone screen, with the destination listed as the Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Square, Dublin 2.

While gardaí were looking at the lock screen, a text was received reading, “did you give €180,000 to Asian guy?” Gardaí went to the hotel, where they found Kang and a co-accused, who is unlawfully at large, the court was told.

The co-accused was holding an empty holdall bag. Gardaí spoke to both men and formed the view they were acting suspiciously and were involved in a money laundering operation.

After both men were arrested, gardaí checked with the hotel and found they were checked into the same room, booked under the co-accused’s name. They found over €1.05 million in cash in the hotel room, some in suitcases and some on the floor and on tables.

Travel documents

Travel documents in Kang’s name, bank cards and other material were also seized.

Gardaí also searched an apartment rented for a two-week stay between August 3rd and 13th after finding a fob on keys seized from Temnis. A small padlocked bag containing €27,500 was found in the apartment, and opened using a small key found with the fob.

Temnis and Kang were both interviewed by gardaí and made admissions.

Temnis told gardaí he knew something was wrong with what he was doing. Kang said he had been asked to fly to Ireland to help a friend and was to receive some money once the job was finished.

On Thursday, Judge Orla Crowe said she has read and takes into account the 32 character references, along with all other documents previously handed into the court.

With regard to Temnis, the judge said that the amount of money involved and the fact that he had an acting role as someone trusted were aggravating factors.

Judge Crowe said she must consider the mitigating factors relating to Temnis, including his early guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions, his lack of ties to this jurisdiction, and his personal circumstances.

Temnis, with an address in Latvia, was handed a four-year prison sentence, which was backdated to the date he went into custody.

The aggravating factors regarding Kang, who is from South Korea, are the amount of money involved, that he was to receive payment for his role, and that he was clearly trusted and had an active role in counting the money. Judge Crowe set a headline sentence of 10 years.

Limited English

The mitigation for Kang was his early guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions, his admissions, his personal circumstances, his letter of remorse and the fact that he is very far from home and has limited English.

Judge Crowe sentenced him to seven years in prison, which she backdated to when he went into custody and gave credit for time served.

Det Gda Tyrrell agreed with Paul Carroll SC, defending Temnis, that his client had only arrived in the country four days before this occurred.

It was further accepted that Temnis’ role was the collection and delivery of money and that he told gardaí that he was reckless about the source of the money.

Det Gda Tyrrell agreed with James Dwyer SC, for Kang, that his client arrived in Ireland on a flight from Hong Kong several days earlier.

He also accepted that Kang told gardaí that if he’d known the job here had been related to crime, he wouldn’t have come. Kang said he didn’t find it suspicious until he saw the cash in the hotel, telling gardaí it felt weird in the room.

Counter

It was also agreed that Kang’s role was as a counter, and had a lesser role than the other man, who is not before the court.

The garda also agreed that Kang was released in December on foot of High Court bail and complied with all conditions.

Replying to Judge Crowe, Det Gda Tyrrell said both men had travelled to Ireland a number of times.

Documents were handed to the court on behalf of both men.

Counsel for both men asked the court to consider their clients’ guilty pleas, the difficulties for foreign nationals serving sentences in this jurisdiction, and that the men intend to leave Ireland when their sentences are completed.

Carroll said his client was in financial difficulty and made a serious error becoming involved in this scheme.

He said Temnis accepts his role and has been doing well in custody.

Dwyer submitted this offending appeared out of character for Kang, who had erred by continuing when he realised what was happening was suspicious.

He said his client was not involved in the physical handover of cash and submitted his culpability was less than the other co-accused.

Kang’s wife had travelled from South Korea to support him and members of staff of the embassy were also present.