Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Interpol
Topics: Christopher Nolan, Crime, Film and TV
Amelia Jones
Director Christopher Nolan's eldest brother has been accused of being a hitman.
Christopher and his other brother Jonathan are celebrated filmmakers, with Christopher's new movie, Oppenheimer, about to drop in cinemas.
Eldest brother, Matthew Nolan, was allegedly linked to a contract killing of 63-year-old American financier, Robert Cohen, who was beaten to death in Costa Rica while on a trip to the Central American country.
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It is believed that Nolan was allegedly contracted to kidnap and torture Cohen, whose badly beaten body was found near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica in 2005.
Nolan was arrested and imprisoned during extradition proceedings – and prepared a bizarre escape attempt.
When they searched Nolan's cell, authorities say they discovered a 31ft ‘rope’ made from bed sheets, and a harness, razor and clip designed to unlock handcuffs - but he never tried to get away.
According to the court, there was 'insufficient evidence' to extradite Nolan to Costa Rica for the charges against him, which led Costa Rican authorities to abandon their request in 2010. He was not convicted of the murder charges.
The US District Court was told the victim, Cohen, worked as an accountant for Florida millionaire gem dealer, Robert Breska.
When £5 million of Breska’s money went missing, according to American court papers, he blamed Cohen - despite counter allegations that Cohen’s Costa Rican business partner, Mario Quintana, stole the money.
After Quintana was discovered shot dead in an apparent suicide in 2004, Cohen said that Breska ‘is capable of putting my life in danger… if anything were to happen to me. Mr Breska would be the person responsible' in a letter found by the FBI.
Breska, the court heard, brought Matthew in to recover the lost money, introducing him to Cohen in Costa Rica in March 2005 as Matthew McCall Oppenheimer, a member of the Oppenheimer diamond dynasty.
There, according to court papers, Nolan also met hotel bellboy Luis Alonso Douglas Mejia, who was subsequently convicted of Cohen’s kidnap and murder in Costa Rica.
Witnesses claimed they saw Cohen and Nolan together in the capital San Jose before he and Mejia allegedly forced their victim into a car and held him captive.
The court heard the Costa Rican authorities claimed the pair then started to ‘torture the victim’, damaging his internal organs, which ‘caused a massive haemorrhage and resulted in death’.
The court also heard that ‘there was little doubt that Cohen’s death was caused by trauma’ while a Costa Rican pathologist was said to have found evidence he was subjected to pain and anguish before being bludgeoned .
Cohen’s body was discovered on 10 March.
At Nolan’s extradition hearing, Judge Michael T Mason noted that Nolan flew out of the country the following day and added: "There is competent evidence that Nolan continued his efforts to locate Breska’s assets following Cohen’s death."
According to The Daily Mail, FBI agent Pablo Araya, who arrested Nolan, said: "I do not know how he paid for his defence. He was going through bankruptcy. Someone paid for a high-powered attorney."
However, his lawyer, Andrea Gambino, said: "Matthew Nolan is innocent of the charges levelled against him by the government of Costa Rica."
Nolan's current whereabouts are still unknown.
UNILAD has reached out to Christopher Nolan's reps for comment.