Computer systems expert and former banker Padraig Collery will be a key and an undoubtedly reluctant source of information should the State decide it wants to establish the identities of the individuals who had money in the Ansbacher deposits.
Mr Collery, a convivial talker but known to be tight-lipped and secretive when it comes to business matters, has been involved in the management of the accounts since the mid-1970s. He has already been served with an order of discovery by the Moriarty Tribunal, which is investigating the finances of the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey. He is expecting a call soon from the authorised officer, Mr Gerard Ryan, who has been appointed by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, to look into the operation of the Ansbacher deposits generally. Up to six or eight months ago, Mr Collery was still playing a central role in the system set up by the late Des Traynor for the payment of Mr Haughey's living expenses. Rich people often go to great lengths to conceal details of their personal finances and Mr Haughey - not only wealthy but without an obvious source for his wealth - was always vehement in his refusal to discuss personal money issues. Mr Collery was one of the men Mr Haughey relied on and trusted.
Mr Haughey's secretary at Kinsealy would send the former Taoiseach's bills to BEL Services, a business run by Mr Jack Stakelum. Mr Stakelum is an accountant who was close to Mr Traynor and did his articles with Haughey Boland, where he was articled to Mr Haughey. Mr Stakelum obtained the money to pay Mr Haughey's bills from Mr Collery, who, in turn, issued instructions to the Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB), where the Ansbacher deposits were kept. The funds were then conveyed from the deposits to BEL Services.
Mr Stakelum, who provided the service without charging a fee, is no longer handling Mr Haughey's bills and it is understood the operation may now be run from Kinsealy. It is not known if Mr Collery is still involved in any way, or if Mr Haughey still has funds lodged in the deposits. The bulk of the deposits were moved elsewhere soon after the public hearings of the McCracken tribunal began early last year.
Prior to their transfer to IIB in the period 1989 to 1991, the Ansbacher deposits were held in Guinness & Mahon bank (G&M). An internal audit report of G&M in 1989 formed the view that Mr Collery knew the names of the account holders with money in the Ansbacher deposits. The report expressed concern about the system operated within the bank in relation to the deposits, which then amounted to nearly £38 million and were under the "sole charge" of Mr Collery.
At the time Mr Collery was an associate director of the bank. The deposits were held in general accounts in the name of Ansbacher Ltd, a Cayman Islands bank. Mr Collery ran a system which kept track of which funds in the deposits belonged to which individual depositors. The records in relation to the general accounts were kept by the bank; the records in relation to the individual customers were kept by Mr Collery on a "bureau system" which used the bank's hardware but had severely restricted access. "The bureau system is operated and controlled solely, on behalf of Ansbacher, by the Associate Director, Operations (DPC) (Mr Collery) and no other senior official of the bank has access to that system. Customer names are not held on the system but each deposit is identified by a code. We understand that DPC is aware of their names," stated the audit report. "DPC deals direct with the customers or their agents."
The report expressed concern about Mr Collery's role and the lack of internal checks but emphasised that the auditors had neither detected nor had reason to suspect that there was any irregularity in relation to the deposits. The auditors also stated they did not have access to the records of the customer deposits (the details of which were on the bureau system and were in effect the records of Ansbacher Ltd rather than G&M).
Mr Collery was operating under the instructions of Mr Traynor, even though Mr Traynor had by 1989 left G&M, where he had been de facto chief executive. Mr Collery, during Mr Traynor's lifetime, did not give or accept instructions in relation to the general accounts.
Padraig Collery joined G&M as a senior bank official in 1974, having previously worked with Lloyds bank in London. His main area of responsibility was the management of the operations department, which was responsible for the maintenance of all the customer accounts in the bank.
In 1974, the "memorandum accounts" which recorded details of the individual customers' holdings in the Ansbacher deposits, were already in existence. Mr Traynor, who as well as being de facto chief executive of G&M was chairman of the Cayman bank, was the central figure behind the establishment and running of the deposits in Dublin.
Mr Collery set up a computer system within the bank for the memorandum accounts and "insulated" it from the rest of the computer system. Mr Traynor gave Mr Collery instructions in relation to the memorandum accounts. The system continued even after Mr Traynor moved to CRH, in 1986, and the Cayman bank ceased to be a subsidiary of G&M. From time to time Mr Collery also took instructions from Mr John Furze - now deceased - and Mr John Collins, two executives with the Cayman bank.
The system also continued after Mr Collery left G&M in 1989, presumably taking with him the information he had maintained on the bureau system. Mr Traynor, working from his CRH offices on Fitzwilliam Square, would send instructions in relation to the deposits to the bank. He also sent copies of these to Mr Collery, who would make the relevant entry in the memorandum accounts he was maintaining. The instructions to Mr Collery had information not contained on the notes to the bank, informing Mr Collery as to which account to debit for the amounts involved: e.g. instructions sent in July 1993 relating to £20,000 being sent to BEL Services contained the note; "please recoup ex S9 deutschmark account". Thataccount held funds used by Mr Haughey.
When the deposits were transferred from G&M to IIB the same system involving coded memorandum accounts persisted. When Mr Traynor died in 1994, Mr Collery became the main Dublin agent for the deposits. Mr Furze travelled to Dublin for Mr Traynor's funeral. While he was here he asked Mr Collery to help him locate Mr Traynor's files in relation to the Ansbacher deposits. The two men transferred the files from Mr Traynor's office on Fitzwilliam Square to offices on Wine Tavern Street used by Mr Sam Field Corbett, who was known to Mr Collery from his days in G&M. The files were kept there until the McCracken tribunal. Meanwhile, Mr Collery took over some of Mr Traynor's functions in relation to giving instructions to IIB about the general Ansbacher accounts.
Before going back to the Cayman Islands Mr Furze destroyed some of the files. He took others with him. Mr Furze retired from the Cayman bank in 1995, and Mr Collery's relationship with Ansbacher Ltd ceased. Following consultations with Ansbacher, Mr Collery destroyed some, though seemingly not all of the Ansbacher files he had been keeping in Dublin.
In the years prior to his retirement Mr Furze had moved funds from the Ansbacher Ltd accounts in IIB to accounts of companies he controlled, called Hamilton Ross and Poinciana Funds Ltd, again in IIB. These accounts were operated in the same way as the Ansbacher accounts, and were referred to by the McCracken tribunal as part of the Ansbacher deposits. Mr Haughey's accounts were within this sub-group, and Mr Collery continued to operate the memorandum accounts.
A matter which remains unclear is the extent to which Mr Collery knew the details concerning money going into, as against out of, individual accounts in the Ansbacher deposits. Detailed records of deposits into the individual customer accounts are understood to exist on the Cayman Islands and would of course be of huge assistance to the Moriarty tribunal in its investigations into the sources of Mr Haughey's wealth.
The McCracken tribunal and now the Moriarty tribunal have served orders of discovery on Mr Collery in relation to whatever documents he still holds in connection with the Ansbacher deposits.
When the McCracken tribunal legal team first came across the Ansbacher deposits and Mr Collery's role in their management, they interviewed him. Initially Mr Collery did not tell the lawyers that Mr Haughey was the beneficiary of payments from the S8 and S9 Ansbacher accounts. When Mr Collery appeared in the public hearings this point was put to him by tribunal counsel Mr Michael Collins SC. Mr Collery said that, as a banker, he was concerned about client confidentiality. He apologised to the tribunal for his reluctance at the time.
