€5.7bn Project Eagle loans sale under scrutiny

Independent TD Mick Wallace’s allegations in the Dáil last Thursday set a controversy alight which had been burning for months in Belfast.

Newspaper journalists in Belfast and BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight had been investigating since the start of the year payments to local figures for their work on the sale last year of a huge bundle of northern loans worth €5.7bn held by Nama.

Following an auction, they were sold last year to Cerberus, a US fund, for €1.6bn. However, the Nama sales process is now under intense scrutiny. The unexpected departure of Ian Coulter, the managing partner of Tughans, in an apparent dispute over fees in January, added fuel to the speculation.