How did Michael Lowry pay for a £55,000 sterling draft purchased in AIB O'Connell Street in January 1991?
We don't know. Mr Lowry's evidence is that he was directed by his bank, AIB Dame Street, to AIB O'Connell Street, when he wanted to open an offshore account. He said he went, alone, to O'Connell Street and negotiated the opening of an account in AIB Jersey. A draft for £55,000 sterling was sent by the bank to Jersey, to open Mr Lowry's account.
Both the tribunal and Mr Lowry have conducted an exhaustive study of his finances. Neither has found any evidence of any account at O'Connell Street. In addition, they have not found any withdrawal from any of his known bank accounts of money to pay for the draft.
Mr Lowry's evidence is that the draft was bought with funds that formed part of £65,000 sterling he had accumulated from payments from Dunnes Stores (Bangor). The £65,000, however, had not been lodged to any of the 19 different accounts he is known to have held.
If Mr Lowry's evidence is correct, where was the £65,0000 sterling in the period up to January 1991?
We don't know. The payments making up the £65,000 sterling were made over the period December 1988 to September 1990. Mr Lowry said he did not exchange the cheques for cash. When in January 1991 he wanted to open his Jersey account, using the Dunnes (Bangor) money, he went to AIB Dame Street and was, he said, directed to O'Connell Street. Mr Lowry said his recollection was that the £65,000 was "being maintained within the AIB banking system" and that he believed it was "probably within AIB O'Connell Street". What happened subsequently?
A memo dated January 14th, 1991, has been produced by the tribunal showing Mr Liam O'Connell, the then assistant manager, AIB O'Connell Street, sending the £55,000 sterling draft to Jersey for the opening of Mr Lowry's three-month term deposit account.
A Jersey bank statement shows the funds being redeposited in April 1991 for another three months. A cheque for £58,337.28 was drawn against the account on July 17th, 1991, and the account's balance was then nil. A fax from AIB O'Connell Street, to AIB Jersey, dated July 17th, requested that the funds from the account be cleared "and send the cheque to branch". Counsel for the tribunal said this presumably meant the O'Connell Street branch, though Mr Lowry had no account there.
Was the £58,337 sterling given to Mr Lowry?
No according to him. He believes it was "within the AIB system" between July and December 1991. In December 1991 it formed part of £100,000 sterling deposit which he made in AIB Jersey, this time sending the money from AIB Dame Street.
What happened to the other £10,000 sterling from the £65,000 sterling?
Mr Lowry believes it was used to pay off debts with Allied Irish Finance.
Was exchange control permission received for opening the Jersey account and depositing the £55,000 sterling?
On the face of it, no, according to the tribunal.
What does AIB say?
Mr O'Connell said he would never have sent money abroad in 1991 without the exchange control permission then required. He said he had only met Mr Lowry once, in January 1991, and he was introduced to him as a potential client by a representative of J.C. Financial Management Ltd, a company with which the bank did business.
He said Mr Lowry was introduced as a client who "would be doing business with them". He could not remember if he opened an account for Mr Lowry. He said the branch did not do a lot of business with AIB Jersey. He agreed it would be "very strange" if Mr Lowry had been able to come to O'Connell street with no cash or draft, and secure a draft for £55,000 sterling.
