The Moriarty Tribunal resumed consideration of the finances of Mr Michael Lowry yesterday. However, the evidence heard raised far more questions about AIB than it did about the former Fine Gael government minister.
It is known from the McCracken (Dunnes Payments) Tribunal that nine payments were made to Mr Lowry by Dunnes Stores in Northern Ireland between November 1988 and March 1993. The total involved was more than £120,000 sterling. Yesterday, the Moriarty Tribunal heard evidence of how just under £100,000 of this money ended up in an account with AIB in St Helier, Jersey.
The first of the payments from Dunnes which ended up in the Jersey account, for £6,000 sterling, was made to Mr Lowry in November 1988. The second, for £5,000 sterling, was made in December 1988. A further four payments were made in the period up to September 1990. The total involved in these six payments was approximately £65,000 sterling. What remained unclear at the end of yesterday's evidence was where this money resided, so to speak, in the period from late 1988, when Mr Lowry received the first of the relevant payments, to January 1991, when he opened his account in the Channel Islands.
The tribunal has conducted an exhaustive examination of 19 bank accounts linked to Mr Lowry and has found no evidence of the money being lodged to any account during the period 1988 to 1991. What Mr Lowry had to say was that he believed the money was "within the AIB banking system" and "probably within AIB in O'Connell Street". However, he never had an account at AIB, O'Connell Street.
Mr Lowry had accounts with AIB in Dame Street, Dublin (the bank branch where Mr Charles Haughey ran up his infamous £1.143 million debt). Mr Lowry's evidence was that, at some time around January 1991, he asked the bank about the possibility of opening an offshore account. He was, he said, told to go to AIB in O'Connell Street, and he believed that the O'Connell Street branch of AIB was contacted and told to expect him.
Mr Lowry went, alone, to the O'Connell Street branch and the opening of the account was arranged. He said he did not bring the £55,000 sterling, which was used to set up his offshore account, to AIB in O'Connell Street. Yet documentation dated January 14th, 1991, was presented by the tribunal which recorded Mr Liam O'Connell, assistant manager, O'Connell Street, sending a draft for £55,000 sterling to AIB in St Helier, Jersey, "as discussed by telephone today", and asking that it be deposited. "We would be obliged if you would kindly contact us at maturity date for further instructions", the memo stated.
In 1991, permission was required from the Central Bank under the then exchange control regulations before opening an account in the Channel Islands. Also, exchange control permission was needed to send money abroad. Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Jerry Healy SC, said that, "on the face of it", neither seemed to have been received for the January 1991 transaction.
He also said that no documentation in relation to Mr Lowry having any account in O'Connell Street had been found by AIB following the request from the tribunal for all such documentation throughout the group.
Mr Lowry's deposits in Jersey earned interest at rates of 10.8 per cent and 13.25 per cent. A note dated September 1991 shows AIB O'Connell Street requesting AIB Jersey to send the contents of the account to it. Mr Lowry redeposited the funds, along with another Dunnes payment, for £34,100 sterling and another smaller cheque. A document signed by Mr Lowry and on AIB Dame Street notepaper, dated December 1991, recorded Mr Lowry requesting the Jersey bank to acknowledge receipt of £100,000 sterling..
Mr O'Connell, the former assistant bank manager at O'Connell Street, said in evidence that it was his recollection that Mr Lowry was introduced to the bank by members of J.C. Financial Management Ltd, a company which conducted business with the branch and which regularly introduced new customers. He said Mr Lowry was introduced to him as a potential new customer. He was not told, he said, that Mr Lowry was a TD, or that he was already a customer of AIB Dame Street. He said he recollected meeting Mr Lowry only on that one occasion.
Counsel for Mr Lowry, Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, said that his client had never heard of J.C. Financial Management Ltd.
Mr O'Connell said he would not have sent money abroad which required exchange control approval if that approval had not be granted. He had never heard of people being directed to the O'Connell Street branch by other branches in the way Mr Lowry had stated.
It is likely that further evidence concerning the opening of the offshore account will be heard. The tribunal is due to go into private session today and tomorrow. Public hearings will resume next Tuesday.