He fled the United States to Brazil, but eventually returned and served time in prison for securities fraud.
Through a series of complex transactions involving mergers and stock issuances Birrell gained control of 40 companies, including Claude Neon, United Dye & Chemical Corp., Fidelio Breweries, Swan-Finch Oil Co., Rhode Island Insurance, Equitable Plan, American Leduc Company, and Doeskin Products, Inc.
He was indicted in July 1959 by a New York County grand jury on charges of stealing stock valued at $14 million from two companies he controlled (Swan-Finch Oil and Doeskin Products).
[8] He was found guilty in December 1967 of 11 counts of securities fraud involving rigging the stock of American Leduc Petroleums, Ltd.[9] The judge died before he could impose a sentence, but Birrell spent 23 months in prison before he could raise bail.
[12] Attorney Arthur L. Liman, who helped prosecute Birrell, called him the "most notorious stock swindler in the 1950s" and "perhaps the leading wrecker of corporations and deluder of investors in the postwar era.