US phone firm offered cash for files, says O’Brien snr

AN American telephone company allegedly offered stg£2 million for the files connected with a British property purchase by telecoms tycoon Denis O’Brien’s family, the Moriarty Tribunal heard.

Businessman Denis O’Brien senior, 76, said he was “livid” over what he saw as attempted blackmail by Ken Richardson and Mark Weaver, previous owners of Doncaster Rovers football club, to intimidate the O’Brien family into parting with more money.

Weaver later travelled to Northampton solicitor Christopher Vaughan — a former Doncaster Rovers company secretary — waving a copy of a letter the solicitor had sent four years earlier to former Fine Gael Minister Michael Lowry linking the Irish politician to the Doncaster transaction.