Accounts detail Ganley's stake in US firm

THE IRISH subsidiary of Declan Ganley's Rivada Networks has filed a new set of accounts for 2007 correcting an earlier set that…

THE IRISH subsidiary of Declan Ganley's Rivada Networks has filed a new set of accounts for 2007 correcting an earlier set that said he had no beneficial interest in its multimillion dollar US parent.

The new set of accounts, received by the Companies Registration Office on Monday, state that Mr Ganley has a 43.2 per cent interest in the US parent. Mr Ganley is the founder and chief executive of the Rivada group.

The US company is involved in a joint venture called Nana Pacific which has in recent years secured communications contracts worth in excess of $35 million with the US military and other US public bodies.

An earlier set of 2007 accounts for Rivada Networks Ltd, received by the Companies Registration Office on October 3rd, stated that Mr Ganley had no interest in its US parent.

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A similiar statement concerning Mr Ganley's lack of beneficial interest in the US parent was made in the 2006 accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office in June of last year.

It is normal for company accounts to contain a statement giving the directors' interests in the company. Both the 2006 and the initial version of the 2007 accounts stated that the two directors of the Irish company, Mr Ganley and James O'Reilly, had no interest in the US parent.

The accounts are audited by Michael Cuddy Co, of Athlone, who also act as auditors to The Libertas Institute Ltd, the legal entity behind Mr Ganley's anti-Lisbon Treaty Libertas group.

Mr O'Reilly is a director and chief operating officer of Rivada Networks in the US. According to the amended 2007 accounts Mr O'Reilly has a 4.14 per cent shareholding in the US parent company. Mr O'Reilly, who lives in Galway, resigned as a director of the Irish subsidiary in February and was replaced by Ken Fields, who has an address in New York.

The fact that the Irish Rivada accounts stated that he had no interest in the US parent was brought to Mr Ganley's attention by The Irish Timeslast week, prior to the publication of a news report on his Irish companies. Mr Ganley said he had no comment on the matter.

The amended accounts state that for the first two months of 2007, the Irish company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Rivada Networks LLC, a company registered in Delaware in the US.

"On March 1st the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Rivada Networks International . . . pursuant to a restructuring in which Rivada Networks International became the parent company and the sole shareholder of Rivada Networks" and the Irish subsidiary. A new annual return for the Irish subsidiary was also filed this week.

The new accounts state Mr Ganley had a 45.9 per cent shareholding in Rivada Networks at the outset of 2007, and 43.2 per cent shareholding in Rivada Networks International at the end of 2007. In relation to Mr O'Reilly, the equivalent figures are 4.19 per cent and 4.12 per cent.

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

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