Offshore payments for favours reached £160,000

RAY BURKE received £160,000 in corrupt payments through offshore bank accounts in exchange for political favours, the Flood Tribunal has concluded.

The tribunal said accounts were opened in the Isle of Man and Jersey in order to receive money from developers Tom Brennan, Joseph McGowan and associates.

The sums of money were enormous at the time and represented around 10 times the gross annual income of Mr Burke.

The tribunal says a series of payments from 1982 to 1985 were aimed at ensuring that Mr Burke would act in the best interests of the developers.

Mr Burke did not reveal the existence of all his accounts and later insisted all lodgements were legitimate payments or political donations.

The tribunal rejected this explanation and said that as a citizen of the State, Mr Burke had no need for offshore accounts and was trying to hide funds from public scrutiny. One of the accounts was held in the name of “Patrick D Burke,” which the former minister said was for reasons of confidentiality. While the tribunal says it has been unable to discover what specific action Mr Burke took after receiving these offshore payments, it was satisfied that on the “balance of probabilities” he acted in favour of the developers.

The tribunal also rejected explanations put forward by the developers who contributed to Mr Burke’s offshore accounts. Mr Brennan, for example, had explained that the £50,000 Isle of Man payment in 1982 was made out as a political donation to “Ray Burke/Fianna Fáil.”

He also claimed that some of the funds which ended up in the offshore accounts were political donations and handled by a self-appointed treasurer Ernest Ottiwell.

However, the tribunal rejected both of these points and said the Isle of Man account in question was held in the name of “Patrick D Burke” and could not have been made out to “Ray Burke/Fianna Fáil.”

It also said Mr Ottiwell had no involvement in the lodgement.

The tribunal has also uncovered what is believes were attempts to obscure the origin of funds placed in the offshore accounts.

In the case of £35,000 lodged to the Jersey account in 1984, Mr Burke had insisted it was the withdrawal of funds from another account in the Isle of Man.

However, the tribunal established that this was not true and said that it was likely the funds came from Tom Brennan and his associates.

In all, the tribunal concluded that the overseas payment payments were made in circumstances which give rise to reasonable inference that the motives for the payment were “improper” and were connected with activities in Mr Burke’s public office.

The report says: “The tribunal is satisfied, in all circumstances, that these payments to the offshore accounts were corrupt payments.”