High Court disqualifies Ansbacher businessman

A BUSINESSMAN linked to the Ansbacher Bank tax evasion scam has been disqualified by the High Court from acting as a company director.

Sam Field-Corbett, aged 65, had faced a six-year ban by the court from acting in a senior management capacity in any firm. This was cut to three years by Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan who allowed for mitigating circumstances.

Mr Field-Corbett is the second person to be disqualified by the High Court following the investigation of Ansbacher Bank, which found widespread tax evasion by hundreds of its clients. Pádraig Collery was last March disqualified from acting as a company director for nine years.

Mr Field-Corbett was a close associate of the late Des Traynor, who acted as personal bagman to Charlie Haughey, and was found to have facilitated the carrying on of banking business in the State in breach of company law.

The Ansbacher investigation found that hundreds of individuals had falsely claimed to have money in the Cayman Islands with Ansbacher to evade tax.

These people had easy access to their funds through Mr Traynor who operated out of the Guinness & Mahon bank in Dublin.

The Ansbacher inspectors found that Mr Field-Corbett was used by Mr Traynor for clients “who needed a point of contact between Mr Traynor and their offshore funds”.

Following the death of Mr Traynor, Mr Field-Corbett relocated the offices of Hamilton Ross (a company that also managed the Ansbacher offshore accounts) to his own building in Dublin.

The Ansbacher report said: “The inspectors have considered the level of Mr Field-Corbett’s involvement and have concluded that in supplying and continuing to supply a premises and back up service to Hamilton Ross from 1994 to 1997 there is evidence tending to show that Mr Field-Corbett may have committed a criminal offence.”

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, which took the case, welcomed yesterday’s High Court ruling.

“My office will continue to work to create the conditions for good corporate compliance so as to reduce the likelihood of similar malpractice with respect to the operations of companies arising in the future,” the corporate enforcer Paul Appleby said last night.