Letters show Haughey was Cayman client

THE CONCLUSIONS: The former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, told the inspectors he rejected the conclusion that he was a client…

THE CONCLUSIONS: The former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, told the inspectors he rejected the conclusion that he was a client of Ansbacher.

The inspectors, however, concluded that he was a client of the Cayman bank, given that he had signed letters connected with a loan from the bank.

One letter covered an application for a loan of £40,000. It was dated December 1982. In January 1985 Mr Haughey signed a letter about the extension for a further two years of the loan. Both letters were examined by the Moriarty tribunal. The second letter was from the late Mr John Furze, the Cayman banker, and was addressed to Mr Haughey at his home in Kinsealy, Co Dublin.

The inspectors did not interview Mr Haughey after he forwarded a medical report to them. They had intended interviewing him at the conclusion of his evidence to the Moriarty tribunal. Mr Haughey told the inspectors they could use the evidence given to the tribunal.

READ SOME MORE

The inspectors said two pieces of evidence concerning Mr Haughey were disclosed to them. These related to two payments to Mr Conor Haughey, totalling £25,000, made in 1992, from the Ansbacher Deposits.

The payments "tend to show that at least some of the money available to Mr Haughey was under his effective control", the inspectors decided.

Mr Haughey's evidence to Moriarty was that the late Mr Des Traynor looked after his financial affairs and that he, Mr Haughey, knew nothing of the Cayman Islands until the McCracken tribunal. That concluded Mr Haughey had an account in the Ansbacher Deposits.

Mr Haughey's solicitor, Ms Deirdre Courtney, of Ivor Fitzpatrick solicitors, wrote to the inspectors on Mr Haughey's behalf after they had disclosed their draft findings to him.

"The balance of the evidence referred to does not allow for a definitive conclusion as set out in your preliminary findings," she wrote.

She said there was no evidence to prove that the money which went to Mr Conor Haughey from the Ansbacher Deposits came from an account belonging to Mr Charles Haughey.

"Our client has always categorically rejected any suggestion or conclusion that he is anything other than a person with loan approval from GMCT and as such has always rejected a conclusion that he was a client of Ansbacher Ltd."

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

Colm Keena is an Irish Times journalist. He was previously legal-affairs correspondent and public-affairs correspondent