Leaked tapes could delay Anglo trials for years
The revelation came as Finance Minister Michael Noonan warned that “mucking about” with such audio information could lead to evidence becoming “contaminated” and excluded from future legal prosecutions.
With concern growing about the fall-out of the Anglo tapes, a senior legal source said: “In the past, the publicity generated from these tapes could have collapsed the subsequent trial, but now it is much more common to delay the trial until the publicity has died down. However, it is going to be a very hard call to decide when the publicity has died down.”
Lawyers for one of the former Anglo executives set to stand trial, Pat Whelan, told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the case may have been “jeopardised” because of information now held by third parties.
What is complicating matters is that an Oireachtas banking inquiry is scheduled to start early in 2014. If this inquiry generates adverse publicity for any of the Anglo executives on trial, then court proceedings could be delayed even further.
Mr Noonan has announced that KPMG — the special liquidators for IBRC — had initiated an investigation into the leaking of the Anglo tapes to the Irish Independent.
It is understood Deloitte will carry out the probe with McCann Fitzgerald providing the legal advice.
It would be up to the trial judge to decide what actions should be taken against any party leaking the tapes.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald demanded to know why a former public interest director of IBRC — the renamed Anglo — had not conducted his own inquiries.
“Why did Alan Dukes sing dumb?” she asked in the Dáil.
A written parliamentary reply to Sinn Féin from Mr Noonan revealed that the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation received a court order in 2010 securing electronic and other documents related to 18 employees of Anglo Irish Bank whose phone lines were taped.
Mr Noonan did not disclose if the tapes were made available to the Nyberg banking probe.
Defending former Fine Gael leader Mr Dukes, the finance minister said: “The guards are the people who investigate crime in this country and the guards have a statutory right to gather the evidence and other people shouldn’t be mucking around in Garda business.
“There’s a risk of contaminating evidence and contaminated evidence is not admissible in court,” he said.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore also insisted a cautious approach was needed.
Bank of Ireland refused to say whether it has tapes of conversations between executives or whether it would release such tapes to a banking probe, when contacted by the Irish Examiner.
A spokesperson for AIB said: “It is not and has not been AIB’s policy to record all calls.”
