Phil Flynn faces charges after gun found in office
Mr Flynn, who as the former head of the Government’s decentralisation programme was one of Bertie Ahern’s closest associates, has been under investigation as part of a massive CAB probe into IRA money laundering activities in the wake of last December’s Northern Bank robbery.
Last night it emerged that, as part of that operation CAB officers found what they described as an unlicensed ‘pen gun’ and ammunition in Mr Flynn’s Dublin office in Harcourt Street.
Having been served with a court summons yesterday, Mr Flynn is now due to appear in Dublin’s District Court on October 10 following directions from the DPP. Meanwhile, the overall investigation into the IRA’s attempts to launder the proceeds of the Northern Bank robbery is understood to be continuing.
CAB officers first searched Mr Flynn’s home and Dublin office in Harcourt Street six months ago after it emerged that he had travelled to Bulgaria with Ted Cunningham, the founder of Chesterton Finance.
Mr Flynn, who is also director of Chesterton Finance, became central to the focus of CAB inquiries after £2.3 million (€3.3m) was discovered in a compost bin in Mr Cunningham’s garden at his home in Ballincollig, Cork.
Both men, and several associates, had also travelled to Bulgaria together, meeting a prominent senior banker and Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Finance Ilia Lingorski, who is responsible for foreign inward investment. Mr Flynn did not respond to messages left on his phone last night.
However, since he resigned from all his public positions and as chairman of the Bank of Scotland in February, the former Sinn Féin vice president has repeatedly denied any involvement in IRA money laundering.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner at the time, he promised to make all the details of his business links to Bulgaria public when the CAB returns confiscated files.
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