New leads in money laundering probe

SEVERAL new lines of inquiry have opened up in the IRA money laundering investigation between Ireland and Bulgaria.

Detectives in both countries will want to interview a Bulgarian diplomat named as the man who introduced Phil Flynn to Deputy Finance Minister Ilia Lingorsky in Sofia last month.

It is believed that Milen Lyutzkanov, who was named in the Bulgarian “Banker Weekly” newspaper, could help piece together the chain of contacts that ran between Ireland and Bulgaria and provide details of other individuals in the network of business acquaintances.

Mr Lyutzkanov was based in London where he worked with the Bulgarian Embassy up to 2001 and is now one of Bulgaria’s officials in NATO.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.

Mr Lingorsky’s business associations are also being probed as the deputy minister is linked to major property developments through a family connection. Phil Flynn has said he was in Bulgaria last month to check out potential property investments. Inquiries into the theory that the IRA were planning to buy a bank in Bulgaria are now focused on one particular bank in Sofia which is understood to have been actively seeking to sell a sizeable shareholding.

At home, a woman arrested by gardaí on Thursday night in connection with the probe was released without charge. The 56-year-old woman, who works for an international consultants firm, was part of the group who travelled with Phil Flynn and Cork businessman Ted Cunningham to Bulgaria last month.

It has emerged that three new companies set up during the visit were not formally registered when Mr Cunningham was arrested a fortnight ago and would not have been able to carry out business.

A Sofia lawyer who carried out a registration search on the companies said it was not unusual for it to take three or four weeks for company formation papers to be processed by the courts and a further two weeks for tax certification to issue.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry official in charge of the Bulgarian police, Boyko Borrisov, yesterday launched an attack on the Irish Examiner’s reporting of the investigation.

Mr Borrisov was speaking on Sofia’s Darik Radio station in an interview on the Propadanda current affairs programme when he criticised what he called irresponsible journalism that was giving his country a bad name.

The police chief was described as furious and used language that did not translate directly into English.