A FINANCIAL adviser charged with money laundering more than £3 million was yesterday accused of telling lies when he said the money found in his house in Co Cork came from a group of Bulgarian businessmen seeking to buy a sand and gravel pit in Co Offaly.
The accusation was levelled by prosecution counsel Tom O’Connell as he concluded his cross-examination of Ted Cunningham on the 40th day of Mr Cunningham’s trial for money laundering at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
“I have to put it to you, you are telling a load of lies about this alleged deal with Bulgarians and that to suggest that Bulgarians were delivering millions of sterling notes to you is utter nonsense,” said Mr O’Connell. “They hardly circulate outside Northern Ireland and certainly not in Bulgaria or the Balkans,” said Mr O’Connell to Mr Cunningham, who didn’t respond to the question on his sixth and final day in the witness box.
Mr Cunningham had earlier been questioned by Mr O’Connell regarding his evidence that he had been coerced by gardaí following his arrest and their threat that if he did not co-operate they would leak details to the press that he had named people in the IRA and he would end up with a bullet in the head.
Mr O’Connell said Mr Cunningham had “complained bitterly and vociferously” about his treatment by Chief Supt Tony Quilter in the Bridewell Garda station on February 18th, 2005, but he met solicitor Frank Buttimer that day and no complaint was ever made.
“I told it as it happened – I am not telling lies,” said Mr Cunningham, adding that he had no recollection of what he did or didn’t say to Mr Buttimer during the consultation. He pointed out that Mr Buttimer had not represented him in four years.
Mr O’Connell put it to Mr Cunningham that he had lobbied for a group called Irish Farm Families Therapy Group in the 1990s and had appeared on the Late Late Show and Questions and Answers arguing the case for farmers in difficulties with the banks.
Mr O’Connell said it was quite clear that he was well able to assert his rights from being involved in such a campaign group and yet in four years, he had never made any complaint of ill-treatment by gardaí until the case against him began. Mr Cunningham disputed this.
“These people you spoke about – none them were in a situation where they were in custody and were being threatened and intimidated I had never ever experienced what I went through in the Bridewell . . . it was the most horrifying and frightening experience of my life,” he said.
Mr Cunningham told the court that he met former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) chairman Phil Flynn the day after he was released when he drove to Urlingford, Co Kilkenny.
He had arranged the meeting after Chief Supt Quilter had asked him to meet Mr Flynn to get his reaction. They discussed the implication of his arrest for himself and for Chesterton Finance where Mr Flynn was a fellow director.
