Flynn: Bulgaria visit was legitimate business trip

GOVERNMENT troubleshooter Phil Flynn and the moneylender who was arrested last week in possession of £2.3 million in suspected IRA cash, met with a senior official from the Bulgarian Department of Finance during a recent business trip to Sofia.

Mr Flynn and Ted Cunningham both directors of Chesterton Finance which is being investigated as a suspected vehicle for IRA money laundering also held meetings some two weeks ago with a senior banking official in Sofia, the Irish Examiner has learned.

As the investigation into money laundering focuses on possible links between the IRA and a Bulgarian crime syndicate, Mr Flynn, a former chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), last night categorically denied the meetings were in any way connected to crime.

Under an audacious plan, the IRA and a Bulgarian crime syndicate were reported to be seeking to buy a bank or set up a financial institution in order to launder huge amounts of stolen cash. Mr Flynn, speaking to the Irish Examiner last night, confirmed that along with Mr Cunningham he had met a bank official and senior Department of Finance official during a business trip for Chesterton Finance two weeks ago.

"Yes, I met a very senior banker and I met a very senior official in the Department of Finance," he said.

However, he insisted the meeting had nothing to do with money laundering or buying a bank for the IRA. "That's a total bum steer I can tell you. Every day there will be a new moonbeam to chase. The conspiracy theories are going into orbit," he said.

Specialist officers are to travel to Bulgaria following a pledge yesterday by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy that detectives would follow the money trail abroad to wherever it took to shut down the money laundering operation.

Speaking in the North, Mr Conroy said: "Prior to the recovery of the monies we have recovered in recent weeks, we did conduct investigations which led us in certain directions. It's a bit too early to go into details on that, but we will be following up in relation to matters overseas."

Mr Flynn said his trip to Bulgaria, during which he met up to 30 businessmen and officials, was for no other purpose than to look at legitimate business opportunities.

"I have associations with Bulgaria going back to the early 1990's. I was there in 2002 to look at the lie of the land. I met with a whole range of people including civil servants and business people," he said.

Mr Flynn pledged to make fully public all of his business associations with Bulgaria "when the time is right" in order to clear his name of the affair. "I'm taking stock of all this stuff now so I can show how wrong it all is," he said.

As news of the ongoing investigation into IRA money laundering circulated in Bulgaria yesterday, Interior Ministry Chief Secretary lieutenant Boyko Borisov gave details of the movements of Mr Flynn and Mr Cunningham during their trip but said there was no evidence any money had been laundered.