The late Mr P.V. Doyle set up a family trust in Liechtenstein using money raised in the United States, according to evidence given to the Ansbacher inspectors. Mr Doyle, one of the State's leading businessmen, also had money in the Ansbacher deposits.
The Ansbacher inspectors concluded that a loan of £1 million arranged by Mr Des Traynor for P.V. Doyle Hotels Ltd, a UK company, from Guinness Mahon London in 1983 was backed by an Ansbacher deposit. The deposit had come from one of the Doyle entities in Liechtenstein, according to the report.
The inspectors, whose report on the Ansbacher accounts was published last Saturday, interviewed a long-time colleague and associate of Mr Doyle's, Mr George Carville. Mr Carville, a former managing director and financial director of the Doyle group, said Mr Doyle set up two Liechtenstein companies which received money from a US company, Extern Travel Inc. The US company was paid a commission every time an American stayed in an Irish Doyle Group hotel.
"We were paying a commission every time an American stayed in the hotel. Now, if an American stayed three nights we paid three nights' commission."
In time the two Liechtenstein companies transferred funds to a Liechtenstein trust or "foundation" called TAWA. Mr Carville thought this occurred in the mid-1980s. The whole operation was abandoned in 1994, he said.
Mr Carville said the trust or foundation was run by a council made up of people from Liechtenstein. He said he and an assistant, Mr Joe McKenna, had flown out to Zurich in 1999 to get details of the trust. They met Dr Santa Passo at Zurich Airport where they discussed the matter. "He brought the files up. He had retired from the office at that stage down there."
Asked what office he meant, Mr Carville said: "There was a Dr Peter Marxer." Dr Marxer is a lawyer with offices in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. He was not in his office yesterday.
Dr Passo, contacted at his home and asked about the Doyle trust, said: "That was ages ago". He said he could not talk about it. "We are not supposed to give any information over the phone, particularly to a newspaper."
Asked if many Irish people used Liechtenstein trust services, he said he could not answer the question. "As a matter of principle we do not speak about it. That is not how we do business." Dr Passo retired in 1998.
Mr Carville said he dealt with Dr Passo over the years, and would travel to Liechtenstein to meet him. He said he was told by Dr Passo in 1999 that no documentation would be given to him about the trust. The inspectors asked Mr Carville to try.
The inspectors were told by Mr Carville that in December 1993 a cheque for £162,338.64, which was paid to the TAWA trust, probably represented the balance of an account in the Ansbacher deposits in Irish Intercontinental Bank.
Mr Doyle died in 1988. The inspectors were told the money was withdrawn from this account because "we were availing of the amnesty". Mr Terry Cooney, an accountant with Cooney & Taggart, was working with Mr Carville's assistant, Mr McKenna, in "clearing up our tax affairs".
Mr Carville told about setting up structures in the US when the Doyle group was buying US hotels in the early 1980s. Mr Carville said he and Mr Traynor went to one of the top accountancy firms in New York to discuss the matter.
A company was formed for each US hotel and a holding company owned the various hotel-owning companies. This company was owned by Extern Travel and by a nominee company provided by Mr Traynor.
