Lender set up to launder cash

At least 30 homeowners are facing repossession despite learning their mortgages were funded through the proceeds of crime.

It has emerged a subprime lender that was set up here in 1997 was part of a complex international structure that was used to launder the proceeds of a £55m tax fraud.

Home Funding Corporation Ltd, which changed its name to Vivier Mortgages Ltd, was set up and funded by English accountant Ian Leaf to invest money he stole from the UK Inland Revenue.

Records from the Crown Court and High Court in England said Mr Leaf used 165 entities around the world, including the Home Funding Corporation, to hide his money and his criminality. Since 2013, 19 fresh repossession actions have been initiated against borrowers whose mortgages were funded by Mr Leaf.

High interest rates have seen borrowers who drew down less than €100,000 confronted with demands in excess of €1m.

The Home Funding Corporation was confiscated from Mr Leaf by the Crown Court in 2007. And, according to company records, it is now owned by a New Zealand businessman.

Under its new name it has been lobbying the Department of Finance not to extend regulation to previously unregulated entities. This was ahead of a draft bill Michael Noonan introduced to the Dáil on Wednesday.

Prior to the confiscation of Mr Leaf’s assets in 2007 more than €7m of his profits were used to fund approximately 150 mortgages in Ireland.

In 2007 the company was part of a list of assets taken over by a court appointed receiver. However, in 2011 the receiver sold the Irish firm to an English buyer who got control of the Irish loanbook.

In 2013 it was first revealed in the Irish Examiner that Mr Leaf, who had changed his name to Ian Andrews, was back working at that English company. In 2014 shares were transferred to a New Zealand businessman.

In correspondence to RTÉ Mr Leaf accepted he established the Home Funding Corporation but denied that it was funded through the proceeds of crime.