Tribunal told funds used as political donation

A £4,000 cheque to be used for expenses connected with Esat Digifone’s bid for the second GSM mobile licence ended up as a political donation to Fine Gael, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

The £4,001.75 cheque was drawn from an Esat-Telenor joint venture account in October 1995 and was co-signed by Denis O’Brien and Telenor executive Hans Myre.

Esat and Telenor were partners in a bid to win the State’s second mobile phone licence at the time.

Fine Gael received the cheque on October 6, 1995 at a time when the competition for the licence had entered a delicate stage.

However, the tribunal was told yesterday that Hans Myre was unaware the cheque was to be used for a political donation to Fine Gael.

The cheque was sent to Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan, chairman of the party’s fund-raising committee.

It was intended as sponsorship for a golf classic at the K Club in mid-October 1995. A letter accompanying the cheque requested that no reference be made at the event to the fact that Denis O’Brien was involved.

John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said the cheque was signed by Mr O’Brien and Hans Myre, a Telenor executive. Mr Myre has told the tribunal he would never have authorised a political payment.

Although he accepted the signature was on the cheque, he maintains he must have signed it with no knowledge of its true purpose.

Mr O’Brien has told the tribunal that Telenor would have had access to the records of this bank account and would have seen this withdrawal as a Fine Gael donation.

In a statement to the tribunal, dated November 19 last, Mr Myre said he only became aware recently that this £4,000 Esat Telecom/Denis O’Brien cheque was used as a political donation to Fine Gael. It was done without Telenor’s knowledge or consent.

Mr Myre said he was shocked and upset to find his name associated with the donation.

He had no recollection of authorising the payment and he had no authority to permit a withdrawal from the joint account to make a political donation.

The tribunal wrote to Mr O’Brien’s solicitors stating if Mr Myre’s evidence was correct, his signature was procured by misrepresentation.

Telenor’s legal representatives had informed the tribunal they were instructed that the withdrawal was obtained by false and misleading pretences.

Mr O’Brien said that he had no specific recollection of signing the cheque, but accepted it was his signature.

But he pointed out the books were openly made available to Telenor up to the time of the sale of Esat Digifone and detailed particulars were the subject of shareholders’ agreement negotiations.