PROPERTY DEVELOPER John Byrne has won a Supreme Court order overturning those parts of the Ansbacher inspectors’ report into illegal offshore accounts which drew adverse inferences from Mr Byrne’s involvement with two Cayman Island trusts.
The three-judge Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the findings of the inspectors in relation to Mr Byrne’s involvement with two trusts – the Tristan Settlement and the Prospect Settlement – were made in excess of their jurisdiction and must be quashed.
The decision arose from Mr Byrne’s giving evidence in January 2001 about the trusts before two of the inspectors, Judge Seán O’Leary and Paul Rowan. The other two inspectors, Noreen Mackey and Michael Cush, were not present.
In his evidence, Mr Byrne said he did not control the trusts and had no power to enjoy income from them. In opposing Mr Byrne’s court proceedings, the inspectors had argued they were entitled to cut through legal and company facades in order to meaningfully report to the court in relation to the Ansbacher situation.
