The former managing partner of a leading law firm in Belfast lied to his fellow partners to “save his own skin” regarding a multimillion-pound property deal, a court heard on Thursday.
Ian Coulter – a former managing partner of Tughans Solicitors – is standing trial at Belfast Crown Court on five fraud-related charges arising from the sale of a Northern Ireland property loan book held by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Mr Coulter, who is 54 and from Templepatrick Road in Ballyclare, denied all the charges, which the prosecution allege were committed over a period from April 3rd to December 1st, 2014.
Also in the dock is co-accused prominent businessman Frank Cushnahan. The 83-year-old, from Alexandra Gate in Holywood, faces two fraud charges, which span from April 1st to November 7th, 2013, which he also denies.
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The jury has already been told that after a deal to sell the Northern Ireland loan book to American investment fund Pimco fell through, a second deal to sell to another US fund, Cerberus, was agreed in April 2014.
As he continued opening the prosecution’s case to the jury, prosecuting KC Jonathan Kinnear presented the jury with documents which he said indicated that Mr Coulter was set to benefit financially from the deal with Cerberus and that his actions were fraudulent.
This, he said, included setting up a bank account in the Isle of Man controlled by Mr Coulter which received £7.2 million (€8.2 million) from Tughans following an invoice from a company in the Isle of Man which Mr Coulter also controlled, Morley Enterprises Limited.
The prosecutor said Mr Coulter also told a secretary to delete the invoice for money sent from Tughans to the bank account in the Isle of Man, which she did not do.
Mr Coulter’s colleagues in Tughans began questioning what had occurred and in November 2014 a meeting was held.
Mr Kinnear said that during this meeting Mr Coulter started “telling lies to save his own skin”.
These lies, he said, included falsely claiming that Mr Cushnahan was not going to receive any money from the success fee.
The barrister said instead, it was the Crown’s case that Mr Coulter “was trying to keep that money for himself ... and pay a share” to his co-accused Mr Cushnahan.
On January 9th, 2015 Mr Coulter resigned from his position in Tughans and the money was transferred back from the Isle of Man account to the law firm.
The following month, the Law Society of Northern Ireland investigated Mr Coulter’s conduct and, in correspondence, it set out 35 requests for information.
Mr Kinnear said that while Mr Coulter did reply, his responses were “riddled with inconsistencies and half truths”.
Saying both Mr Coulter and Mr Cushnahan were “motivated by greed”, he added: “It’s the prosecution’s case that Mr Coulter intended all along to make a payment to Mr Cushnahan but was caught before he could do so and was compelled to return the money to the Tughans account.”
Both men were subsequently interviewed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
As he concluded opening the prosecution’s case to the jury, Mr Kinnear told the nine men and three woman that what they had heard over the last four days “is not evidence” but that they will start to hear the evidence next week.
Before they left court, the jury was once again warned by Madam Justice Denise McBride not to discuss the case with anyone or carry out their own research.
The trial is due to resume next Wednesday, October 8th, when the first witness is due to be called.
