Bank records suggest an alternative scenario to that put to the inquiry by Bertie Ahern, writes Colm Keena.
Proceedings at the Mahon tribunal to date indicate the inquiry is not yet satisfied with the account Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has given of the four cash lodgements that form the focus of its current inquiries.
Mr Ahern has outlined a confusing narrative and one that has changed since his private interview with the tribunal earlier this year. Nevertheless, the Taoiseach's account is understandably, and in broad outline, coherent.
The difficulty is that his version of events is called into question by documentary evidence that is available.
The Taoiseach's story, in broad outline, goes as follows: He was given money by friends and supporters in Dublin and Manchester, and lodged this money, approximately one-third of it sterling, in October 1994 with AIB O'Connell Street. The amount lodged was £24,838.49.
In December 1994 Mr Ahern agreed with Manchester-based Michael Wall that he, Mr Ahern, would rent a house in Drumcondra; Mr Wall had put a booking deposit on this property. The two friends agreed they would both advance money towards the renovation of the house. Mr Wall put up approximately stg£30,000 in cash, and Mr Ahern £50,000. Mr Ahern's then partner, Celia Larkin, was to administer the money.
On Monday, December 5th, 1994, she opened two new accounts in her name with AIB O'Connell Street. Into the first, according to Mr Ahern, went the cash he had been given by Mr Wall. This translated into £28,772.90 when lodged. Into the second account went £50,000 that was withdrawn from Mr Ahern's accounts in the same branch.
Six weeks later Mr Ahern withdrew the £50,000 in cash. He says he used some of this money to purchase stg£30,000 in cash, which he was considering returning to Mr Wall. He never did, and instead used some of the money on the renovations, and relodged the rest. A sum of stg£10,000 was lodged to AIB in June 1995, and used on the house. An amount of stg£20,000 was lodged in December 1995 to Mr Ahern's account.
The bank records that are available raise questions about this version of events.
The £24,838.49 lodged in October 1994 equates exactly to stg£25,000 when one of the exchange rates (an inappropriate one) in use on the day is applied. Records showing the total amount of sterling, and the total amount of other foreign currency, purchased by the branch each day, are available. On an average day during the period the value of each was approximately £2,000. On the day of the October lodgement, the value of the sterling bought by the branch was £27,491.95.
On the day in December 1994 when, according to Mr Ahern, Ms Larkin lodged the cash received from Mr Wall, the bank only bought sterling worth £1,921.53, according to its records. Also, the amount lodged, £28,772.90, equates to exactly $45,000 when one of the dollar exchange rates in use on the day is applied. The total value of the non-sterling foreign currency bought on the day by the branch was £28,969.34.
The bank records also raise concerns about the final two lodgements; the sterling cash lodgements made in June and December 1995. There is no record in AIB O'Connell Street of anyone buying stg£30,000, or anything close to that amount, during the January to June 1995 period.
The bank records, therefore, indicate that stg£25,000 may have been lodged in October 1994, $45,000 in December 1994, and stg£30,000 on two dates in 1995. In such a scenario there is no explanation for where the first two amounts could have come from.
The final two lodgements, totalling stg£30,000, could be the money from Mr Wall, perhaps held over by Mr Ahern in his safe for a period. That would leave open the question of what happened to the £50,000 cash withdrawn in January 1995.
The tribunal, in its interview with Mr Ahern earlier this year, made it clear it is considering the possibility that Mr Wall may have purchased the house in Drumcondra as nominee for Mr Ahern.
Mr Ahern withdrew the £50,000 in January 1995. Mr Wall closed the deal on the house in late March 1995. The purchase price was £138,000 and the evidence indicates that the non-mortgage element of that was in the region of £50,000.
Furthermore, in its opening statement on this module earlier this year, the tribunal revealed that when Mr Wall sold the house to Mr Ahern in 1997, he lodged the net proceeds of the sale to an account in Galway. The amount lodged was almost £90,000 and the sale price was £138,000. One month after the lodgement Mr Wall withdrew £50,000 in cash. He has told the tribunal he brought this money back to Manchester, and spent it on various non-receipted expenditures. Could it have, instead, gone back to Mr Ahern, and if so, to where?
All of the above is of course just conjecture, but the fact is that the tribunal is having the current series of sittings because it is finding it difficult to accept Mr Ahern's account of where the large cash lodgements being inquired into came from.
Mr Ahern has given his very clear evidence that the October 1994 lodgement was not stg£25,000, that he never dealt in dollars, and that the two 1995 sterling lodgements were the relodgement by him of money he had earlier withdrawn and used in part to purchase sterling. He has also told the tribunal that the £50,000 withdrawn in January 1995 was not put towards the purchase of the Drumcondra house.
If he can convince the tribunal that his account of the lodgements is correct, then the tribunal can dispense with giving thought to other, more malign scenarios such as the one outlined above.