Cashing in on the charitableness of others

ON Dec 7, 2007, Jim Nugent told the Mahon Tribunal, under oath, that he had been involved in a whip-around for Bertie Ahern.

Nugent told how he’d been at a meeting in the Berkeley Court hotel with Ahern’s then solicitor, Gerry Brennan, and Des Richardson, who was a close confidante of Ahern’s and a Fianna Fáil fundraiser.

According to Nugent, this meeting, in late 1993, was arranged by Brennan to ask Nugent to contribute £2,500 to a fund for Ahern’s legal bills. At the time, Ahern also had £50,000 in savings.