Bertie's hand out
THE intricate financial dealings of An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are boiling down to a single week in December 1993.
For a moment, forget the fundraisers in Manchester, or the allegations surrounding Owen O’Callaghan.
The Mahon Planning Tribunal believes there is a weak link in his story and it centres on a loan he took out the Thursday before Christmas 1993, which it is placing alongside a similar sized lodgment he made seven days later.
Mr Ahern is on the record as saying the money behind the lodgment was a surprise to him.
It was the idea of two close friends, the late Gerry Brennan and Des Richardson, to help him pay his legal bills by approaching other close friends to donate sums between £2,500 and £5,000 each.
Mr Ahern said one of these close friends was NCB stockbroker, Padraic O’Connor, who this week took the stand to say he never intended the £5,000 for Mr Ahern’s personal use.
Already this week tribunal lawyer Des O’Neill asked the bank official dealing with the then Minister for Finance if he found Mr Ahern’s behaviour surprising.
In one critical moment at 12.20pm on the 788th day of the tribunal, Mr O’Neill laid out his theories on Mr Ahern’s actions of Christmas week 1993 as he quizzed the former AIB assistant bank manager, Philip Murphy.
Mr O’Neill said effectively within days Mr Murphy had sanctioned a loan and accepted a savings lodgment for a similar amount from Mr Ahern.
“Is it the position that before Mr Ahern came to you and said ‘I would like a loan,’ you said to him, ‘that will be fine as long as you come up with the money to cover the loan’,” Mr O’Neill said.
Mr Murphy said this was not the case and he did not find Mr Ahern’s methods surprising.
However, had it been a normal person he would have suggested paying off the loan first.
“We’re dealing with the Minister for Finance, we’re not dealing with somebody who just walked off the street,” Mr Murphy said.
Mr O’Neill eventually put it to Mr Murphy that the soon-to-be Taoiseach was setting up a “back-to-back loan”.
This is a term used in financial circles to explain a practice where two banks in two countries would lend each other identical amounts in different currencies to avoid any turmoil in the international markets.
This was a telling link to yesterday’s revelation on the possibility that Mr Ahern had accepted dollars from American businessman, Norman Turner, who at the time was hoping to build a casino in the Phoenix Park.
Mr O’Neill forensically examined Christmas week 1993 with Mr Murphy, Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson and former NCB stockbroker Padraic O’Connor, in the stand.
The overall donation in question, £22,500, was gathered together by Mr Richardson and drawn down on December 22, 1993.
This was the day before Mr Ahern walked into AIB assistant bank manager Mr Murphy and asked for an unsecured loan of £19,115.97
He was charged 11% interest; he did not touch the loan for 18 months; did not sign official forms for more than a year, and closed the account with a final payment of £1,061 in January 30, 1996.
On his application form, filled out in 1995, he said his annual salary as party leader was £200,000, plus his TD’s wages. He indicated his house in Drumcondra was worth £90,000 and he was the registered owner.
The question the tribunal kept asking Mr Murphy was why Mr Ahern needed this loan in the first place.
Within days of drawing it down, Mr Ahern contacted the bank again, and when Mr Murphy visited his home on December 30 he produced from his safe £22,500, made up of £15,000 in cash and the remainder in cheques and bank drafts.
Mr Ahern said he wanted to use this money to open a Special Savings Account.
Part of what he handed over originated from a company called Willdover Ltd, a business run by Mr Richardson.
Another part was sanctioned through Euro Workforce Ltd, a consultancy company Mr Richardson was partly in control of.
The Taoiseach claims all of this sum stemmed from donations from his friends. Mr Ahern stresses he neither solicited this, nor was he aware of the collection prior to being presented with it.
What will be crucial in the continuing probe into this payment, and subsequent payments during 1994 and 1995, was if there are as yet undeclared people associated with the fundraising.
On Wednesday, the tribunal introduced the potential involvement of Cork property developer Owen O’Callaghan and also brought Mr Turner in the picture.
This line of questioning will call into question Mr Ahern’s version of events so far and examine if there was any other reason behind the “dig out”.
In his now-famous RTÉ interview, Mr Ahern said he was in need of financial assistance when he accepted the £8,000 whip-round in 1994.
However, an examination of the accounts and the application forms at AIB showed that he had the Special Savings Account intact at this time.
During 1994, he extended his savings to £72,500.
It is just another anomaly the tribunal team have yet to properly examine as they seek to understand what is behind the payments.
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