PAC urges all-island probe into Nama deal
Some £5m was to be paid to one former adviser with the agency by a US equity fund if it won the bidding war for a massive property portfolio in the North.
There are now calls for an all-island investigation into the revelations.
Agency chairman Frank Daly defended the handling of the 850-property loan package, saying that it was a robust process.
However, Mr Daly also admitted that Frank Cushnahan, formerly on Nama’s board in the North, was named to it by US equity firm Pimco over a three-way split of a £15m pot for getting the deal — called Project Eagle — over the line last year.
Pimco — one of nine global funds interested in the €5.7bn property package — told Nama about the “success fee” payment plan in March 2014, during the final days of the bidding war. Others in line for payment were Brown Rudnick, a US legal firm for Pimco, and Tughans, the North’s third largest commercial law firm.
The revelations were made at the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee yesterday, leaving TDs astounded and critical of whether Nama got value for money.
Independent TD Shane Ross said it was one of the biggest property transactions in the world. He asked Nama had alarm bells not gone off when it was told of the £5m fee going to Mr Cushnahan.
Mr Cushnahan retired from the Nama board for “personal reasons” in November 2013 but then was involved in the Pimco deal.
Why was the sale not stopped, asked Mr Ross.
Mr Daly said the agency never paid fees like that and that Nama at the time agreed that Pimco had to withdraw from the bid.
However, it later emerged that the successful bidder, Cerberus, was also advised by both law firms, Brown Rudnick as well as Tughans, about the €1.6bn it paid for the property package.
Nama says it asked for and received assurances from Cerberus that it was not paying third-party fees to anyone linked with the agency.
Independent TD Mick Wallace said in the Dáil last week that a audit of Tughans found that £7m had been diverted into an Isle of Man account, earmarked for a politician or party.
Comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy yesterday said he would examine losses linked to Project Eagle in an audit later this year. But PAC chairman John McGuinness said an all-island inquiry was needed, that the deal was compromised and did not get taxpayers value for money.
