Stakelum used AIB in Jersey for clients' funds

A fromer Haughey Boland accountant, Mr Jack Stakelum, who used the late Des Traynor and Guinness & Mahon (G&M) to place…

A fromer Haughey Boland accountant, Mr Jack Stakelum, who used the late Des Traynor and Guinness & Mahon (G&M) to place funds offshore for clients, began to use AIB Jersey the year after Mr Traynor left G&M, according to the Ansbacher report.

A spokeswoman for AIB said the bank had no comment to make on the matter. Mr Stakelum also said he had no comment.

Mr Stakelum was a close friend of Mr Traynor's. He looked after the bill-paying service for Mr Charles Haughey from 1991 to 1997 and has given evidence to the McCraken and Moriarty tribunals.

In December 1975 Mr Stakelum left Haughey Boland and set up his own firm, Business Enterprises Ltd, with offices on Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

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Mr Stakelum told the inspectors that he sometimes placed clients' funds with Mr Traynor and that he was aware Mr Traynor placed these funds in offshore banks associated with G&M.

In some instances the clients' money was already abroad before it was transferred to Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust (now Ansbacher Cayman Ltd) or G&M banks in the Channel Islands. In other instances the clients' money was sent abroad from the Republic.

Mr Stakelum also established an account with AIB in the name of Business Enterprise Ltd and later in the name of another business of his, Clyde Enterprises, which he used for facilitating receipts from and payments to clients who were using the offshore accounts. The account was non-interest bearing so that it would not attract the interest of the Revenue.

Money people wanted to send abroad could be placed in this Irish pound account. Later, when other people wanted to make withdrawals, they could be given money from the account.

Journal entries were then made to track the exchanges between the clients.

"If somebody wanted to take funds back from abroad and somebody wanted to put them out, you could do it by journal entry," Mr Stakelum explained to the inspectors. For larger withdrawals the money was secured from Mr Traynor and the Ansbacher accounts.

"In 1987 Mr Stakelum felt that Guinness & Mahon were not providing him with the kind of service he had enjoyed previously, and also they were becoming expensive," the inspectors said in their report.

"This resulted in his decision to open an account in Allied Irish Banks in Jersey. From 1988, all funds of new clients were transferred to the new account while the funds of his earlier clients were gradually withdrawn from Guinness & Mahon.

The details of this operation have not been investigated by the inspectors on the basis that it is too remote from their terms of reference."

The inspectors conclude that there is evidence "tending to show" that Mr Stakelum, acting through Clyde Enterprises, a registered business name, carried out banking business in Ireland by facilitating the lodgement of funds of Irish residents to overseas accounts in Ansbacher.

The inspectors also found there was evidence tending to show that Mr Stakelum provided a mechanism whereby Irish residents could withdraw their offshore funds in Ireland, and carried out his business with intent to defraud creditors (i.e., the Revenue Commissioners) of the deposits.

They also said there was evidence Mr Stakelum may have committed the criminal offences of: conspiracy to defraud; of knowingly aiding, abetting, inciting or inducing another to make incorrect returns; and of carrying on a banking business without the requisite licence.

The inspectors' report lists nine clients of Ansbacher who were clients through Mr Stakelum.

The Director of Corporate Enforcement, who is currently examining the Ansbacher report, has the power to appoint authorised officers to investigate companies which he believes may have contravened company law.

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

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