Money-laundering accused gives evidence

The Cork man accused of money-laundering gave direct evidence from the witness box today for the first time in his 34-day trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Ted Cunningham (aged 60) of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, denies 20 charges of money-laundering in a case that arises out of the investigation of the robbery of £26.5m (€28.6m) 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.”

“At one stage I was asked could I handle cash – US dollars, Canadian dollars, sterling. I was just asked could we handle cash payments, I said, Yes we could,” Cunningham testified.

He told the jury that Bulgarians were interested in a sand and gravel pit in Tullamore, County Offaly, and that they arranged to buy it from Cunningham for 4 million. It was not stated if this was sterling or euro.

The accused said he received sterling payments totalling £3m (€3.24m) from the Bulgarians in respect of the pit and that these payments were made in sums including £800,000 (€864,000), £200,000 (€216,000) and a number of £500,000 (€540,000) payments. He described receiving one payment in Tullamore and another in Navan.

He said that before the payments, three Bulgarians – Georgi Andossorov, his father Slavtoho and Emil Petrov – visited Ireland looking at properties.

“We did a deal on the pit. I did the deal with Georgi. A price was agreed to go on the contract of 2 million and 2 million to be paid by way of commission. Funds would have to be declared to Revenue,” Cunningham testified.

By the end of January 2005 he said he had “£3m (€3.24m) in cash in UK sterling, there was Northern sterling and Bank of Scotland sterling.”

Ted Cunningham will continue to give evidence under examination from his own counsel, Ciarán O’Loughlin, tomorrow.