Former lottery chairman linked Ahern to Turner’s casino plan
In late 1994, the National Lottery entered a non-disclosure agreement with Ogden Entertainment to become partners on the Dublin casino project. Mr Turner was the man behind Sonas, a company linked to Ogden.
Mr Hynes, in a public statement, said Mr Ahern knew about the scheme and had been aware of requests to have the State-owned lottery involved in the project as a partner.
He said Ogden Entertainment wanted the National Lottery involved to “rent a reputation”. Mr Ahern was minister of finance at the time and Mr Hynes said he was surprised the project was approved.
He also said Mr Turner claimed Mr Ahern was aware of the project and was not opposed to the casino.
The project would have involved the redevelopment of 100 acres in the Phoenix Park and the opening of Europe’s largest slot machine venue.
The casino never went ahead because it required a change of law that was not passed. Mr Ahern was publicly opposed to the project and supported public campaigns to prevent the casino from going ahead.
The non-disclosure agreement with the National Lottery was signed in late 1994.
The passport at the centre of last night’s controversy was issued on August 8 of the same year.
The Mahon Tribunal is probing another payment made by Mr Turner to Fianna Fáil in May 1994. Last year, the tribunal heard the payment was made at Old Trafford in May 1994 when Mr Turner hosted former Fianna Fáil chief fundraiser Des Richardson.
He handed him a package with a cash donation.
The next day, on his return to Ireland, Mr Richardson said he discovered the envelope contained $10,000 (€6,750) cash.
Mr Richardson said he had left the package unopened because it would not be good manners to look at what was inside.
“I wasn’t getting a present from Santa Claus. I could wait,” he said.
Mr Richardson told the tribunal Mr Turner wanted his donation to remain confidential. He didn’t want a receipt or have the donation recorded, saying he had “enough paper work to deal with”.
When Mr Richardson took the stand at Dublin Castle the tribunal sought full disclosure from his accounts and from the accounts relating to the companies he controlled.
It had earlier been revealed some of the “dig out” payments to Mr Ahern had first been lodged into the bank accounts of companies controlled by Mr Richardson, before being passed on to Mr Ahern.
Tribunal lawyer Des O’Neill argued if there was a money trail from Mr Richardson’s companies to Mr Ahern it followed that any donations to these companies could potentially be investigated as payments made to the Taoiseach.
Mr Ahern has denied there is any connection.
Mr O’Neill said understanding the links between Mr Richardson’s companies and Fianna Fáil would be key to unravelling the Taoiseach’s complicated finances.
“I would have thought it self-evident to try to establish what the relationship was between the fundraising being done by Mr Richardson individually (and the money),” said Mr O’Neill.
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