Ganley acted maliciously against me, says O’Brien

Billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien has alleged before the High Court that Declan Ganley has acted “maliciously” and out of “spite” in bringing proceedings against him over the award of the State’s second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.

Businessman Mr Ganley contends that Cellstar, a consortium with which he was involved and which unsuccessfully bid for the licence, lost out due to corruption in how the licence was awarded in 1996.

Mr Ganley and two of his companies will argue Cellstar would have won the licence had the process for awarding the licence not been corrupted by people including Mr O’Brien, argued Brian O’Moore SC, for Mr Ganley and the companies. Counsel was making submissions to Mr Justice Sean Ryan opposing an application by Mr O’Brien for orders directing two companies of Mr Ganley to provide security for costs of their action arising from the award of the licence to Esat Digifone.