Mr James Howard, a 69-year-old retired farmer from Co Meath, told the High Court this afternoon he met Ms Beverely Cooper-Flynn with the purpose of investing "hot money" – money that had not been declared to the revenue commissioners – in May 1993.
According to Mr Howard, over the course of his working life as a farmer and cattle dealer, he had been putting money aside for the future and it had been lodged in an account for him by the manager of his branch of the National Irish Bank (NIB) in Balbriggan.
The total amount of money in that account in 1993 was to his knowledge, he said, around £84,000 and he was looking for ways of investing it for future use by himself and his family.
Mr Howard was then asked about the circumstances of his first meeting with Ms Cooper-Flynn.
He said after he sold his interests in Premier Dairies in 1990, for which he received the sum of just over £50,000, he met Ms Cooper-Flynn for the first time after she called out to his house unannounced following a phone-call.
Mr Howard said Ms Cooper-Flynn invited him to invest in the CMI investment scheme. At the time, however, he was not interested and it was not until two years later, in May 1993, that he met her again and expressed an interest in investing the money.
When he was given a form to sign by Ms Cooper-Flynn, he said he was hesitant. In response, she asked: "Do you know who I am?"
There was no discussion about the scheme – he says she told him "to make it snappy" – there was no brochures about it and Ms Flynn, he says, did not advise him to seek independent tax advice.
Some three weeks later, the 1993 tax amnesty was announced. The terms offered by the Revenue Commissioners were very attractive and, he said, he decided to avail of it.
He telephoned Ms Cooper-Flynn to arrange for the withdrawal of the money from the scheme.
She replied, he says, "No need to give the Government 15 per cent – we’re not going to do that," after which she put the phone down.
Mr Howard also denied this afternoon that he had"mixed up" Ms Cooper-Flynn with Ms Patricia Roche, another employee of NIB with whom he had had talks about a capital acquisitions tax policy.
Ms Flynn claims it was Ms Roche who sold the CMI product to Mr Howard.
Ms Cooper-Flynn is suing RTÉ journalist Mr Charlie Bird and retired farmer Mr James Howard of Wheaton Hall in Drogheda in Co Louth.
She claims she was libelled in broadcasts on RTÉ between June 19th 1998 and July 1st 1998 and words used on the programme claimed she had instigated a scheme, the object of which was the evasion of the lawful payment of tax.