Brian MacCaba
Brían Mac Caba is a Jewish multi-millionaire born and raised in Ireland but now primarily based in London and Jerusalem. Although making his fortune in the e-commerce sector through his company Cognotec, he is perhaps best known for his part in the infamous 'Indecent proposal' libel case which is the longest running slander case in British legal history.
Personal
Born Brian McCabe, he was raised in the middle class south Dublin area of Glenageary. His father, Séamus, was a civil servant in the Irish Department of Agriculture while his mother, Vera, was one of the first two female accountants in Ireland. Raised as a Catholic he attended the private Christian Brothers school in Monkstown. He went on to UCD in Dublin, graduating with a B.Comm. While at UCD he was an avid gaelgóir (Irish speaker) heavily involved in the students union while he also served as auditor of the prestigious Commerce and Economic Soceity{his predecessors included Charlie Haughey and Fergal Quinn). He later attained a MA from the London School of Economics.
He converted to Judaism in 1990 after reading over two hundred books on the subject. Following this he became a very important figure in the Jewish community of North London and further afield. He adopted a ultra orthodox Jewish lifestyle and contributed money to the community. He helped organise several trips of senior Israeli figures to Downing Street to meet Tony Blair and accompanied the influencal Shas, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, on one such meeting.
Married twice with six children, Mac Caba keeps homes in both Britain and Jerusalem.
Business
Mac Caba has been involved in setting up businesses since his mid twenies. His most successful one, however, is Cognotc, a company based in Dublin providing foreign exchange software for large banks and corporations. The company attracted multi million pound investment from Softbank amongst others. They also have struck up partnerships with Bloomburg. Cognotec has offices in Ireland, Britain, New York and Tokyo.
Mac Caba's exact wealth is unknown but has ranged from £20 million pounds upwards to the hundreds of millions when Cognotec's value was high during the dotcom boom. Mac Caba was said to be among the 50 richest in Ireland, the 50 most important Irish in Britain and amongst the 30 individuals taking advantage of the net in Europe and Asia.
'Indecent proposal' slander case
Mac Caba shot to worldwide notice in 2004 when he took a case against religious court Judge Yaakov Israel Lichtenstein, one of the ranking members of the ultra-Orthodox community in Britain. The case became known as the 'Indecent proposal' case due to its similarity to the movie starring Robert Redford, Indecent proposal. Based on the evidence presented prior to the hearing held at the High Court in London, it emerged that Mac Caba carried on an intimate correspondence in the late 1990s with an ultra-Orthodox woman whom he allegedly attempted to "free" from her marriage, after offering her husband $1 million.
Mac Caba took the slander case because he alleged Lichenstein slandered him in a "long-standing campaign". He accused Lichtenstein of spreading "henious" allegations that he was a "serial adulterer" and "[...] predator". The matters came to a head when Mac Caba had trouble having his child's application to school because of the rumours. Lichtenstein denied the accusations made against him. He had not used the term "adulterer," even though he had received several reports of "inappropriate" behavior by Maccaba toward Jewish women he claimed.
The Jewish Chronicle dubbed it the "Case of the Sacred and the Profane" as the intimate marital relations of two families were laid bare and the "bad blood" between the businessman and the rabbi exposed
The case lasted six weeks and was the longest running slander trial in UK history. The case was decided in favour of Lichenstein, Mac Caba forced to pay costs of £2 million pounds.