€1.5bn collected so far in offshore account investigations

The Revenue Commissioners have collected a total of €1.5bn so far as part of their special investigations into bogus offshore accounts.

The figure was announced today at the launch of the Revenue’s annual report for 2003.

The organisation said it had recovered almost €500m as part of its latest investigation into offshore accounts, which began last year.

It said a total of around 11,000 people had voluntarily disclosed such accounts after being contacted by the Revenue.

A further €151m was also recovered as part of investigations into two trusts in the Isle of Man and Jersey.