The multi-millionaire financier Mr Dermot Desmond is due to give evidence to the Moriarty tribunal today or later this week in relation to financial dealings he had with former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey and members of his family.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, revealed yesterday that Mr Desmond gave Mr Haughey £100,000 sterling in 1994 and an additional £24,630 sterling two years later. The money was used to defray Mr Haughey's bills which, Mr Coughlan also revealed, totalled £3.4 million in the period from January 1985 to December 1996.
Mr Coughlan, in an opening statement preceding the first public sitting of the tribunal in more than a month, revealed that a shares account operated by National City Brokers in the period 1988 to 1995 contained more than £300,000 and belonged to Mr Haughey.
The account was in the name of Overseas Nominees, a nominee company owned by Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd, the Cayman Islands bank which operated the Ansbacher deposits. Mr Desmond was the "contact man" in NCB in relation to the account and instructions were given by the late Des Traynor.
Mr Traynor, one of the chief architects of the Ansbacher deposits, was Mr Haughey's personal financial adviser.
The tribunal wants to establish the source of the funds lodged to the investment account. Mr Coughlan said Mr Desmond had told the tribunal that the Overseas Nominees account was opened following an approach from Mr Traynor and that he, Mr Desmond, did not know who the beneficial owner was.
Mr Coughlan revealed that a loan of £74,564, arranged by Mr Desmond in 1990/91 for Mr Conor Haughey, who wanted to refurbish the Haughey yacht, Celtic Mist, has not been repaid. In a statement to the media last year, Mr Desmond said that the loan had been "settled".
Mr Desmond has informed the tribunal's lawyers that the loan came from two companies, Dedeir, an investment company linked to Mr Desmond, and Freezone, a Channel Islands company. It was subsequently consolidated in Freezone and, when this company was dissolved, was taken on by its sole shareholder, a Mr Colin Probets, of Guernsey.
A woman who answered the phone in the home of Mr Probets in Guernsey last night said that he was unable to conduct telephone conversations because of disabilities he had suffered arising from a stroke.
The Moriarty tribunal heard yesterday that the balance in Mr Haughey's Ansbacher deposit accounts in September 1992, just seven months after he had resigned as Taoiseach, was £1.28 million sterling.
