THE former president, Dr Patrick Hillery, has expressed astonishment that his name has been linked to a document at the centre of a court case involving Indonesian gold worth more than £7 billion.
A gold certificate names a "Mr Patrick J. Hillery" as the legal holder of the gold while other documents refer to "Patric J. Hillery".
An Australian lawyer, Mr Peter Johnston, was arrested on fraud charges in February last year when he attempted to deposit the certificate at a London bank. Dr Hillery told The Irish Times he had received a letter last November from Mr Johnston's solicitor asking him to confirm that a signature on a document relating to the gold was his.
"It wasn't anything like my signature. It wasn't even an attempt to be my signature. It's a total mystery to me," he said.
The Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), where the gold is alleged to be held, has dismissed the certificate as a forgery. Mr Johnston's solicitor admits he cannot prove the certificate is genuine but insists his client believed it was authentic at the time of his arrest.
Despite Mr Johnston's arrest, a number of attempts have been made in recent months to sell the gold on the basis of the disputed certificate. One British trader came close to buying the gold earlier this year. He withdrew after the UBS questioned the certificate's authenticity.
Mr Johnston claims he came to London to sell the gold on behalf of Dr Edison Damanik, a Jakarta lawyer who once represented the family of the Indonesian leader, Sukarno, who died in 1970. Sources within the gold trade believe the gold is now owned by a consortium including members of the Sukarno family and the Indonesian government.
When he was approached by The Irish Times, Dr Hillery immediately made available all the correspondence between himself, Mr Johnston and his solicitor. He had never heard of Dr Damanik, and his only visit to Indonesia was in 1985 when he stopped at Jakarta on his way to Australia for a state visit. He has never returned to either country and has no business interests in them.
"I'm just retired now, playing golf. I didn't think it was appropriate to do anything else," he said.
Mr Johnston's trial has been set for July, but his solicitor told The Irish Times that he has no plans to call Dr Hillery as a witness.
