Cunningham claims Bulgarian businessmen wanted to invest

THE Corkman accused of money-laundering claimed from the witness box yesterday a group of Bulgarian business people were keen to invest money with him, because they could not trust their country’s banks.

Ted Cunningham, aged 60, of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork, gave evidence from the witness box for the first time in his 34-day trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. He denies 20 charges of money-laundering, in a case arising out of the probe into the robbery of £26.5m from the Northern Bank in Belfast on December 20, 2004.

Cunningham said: “One man (in a group of Bulgarian businessmen) said a lot of his business was cash-orientated and he said banks were not trusted in Bulgaria because they were run by the Russian mafia. They were looking for investments outside Bulgaria.