The fact that Mr Denis O'Brien did not tell his solicitor about a £150,000 payment to the Fine Gael fund-raiser, Mr David Austin, while the solicitor was conducting an inquiry into possible payments to Mr Michael Lowry was not a "purposeful thing", Mr O'Brien told the tribunal.
He said that he did not see this information as a "big issue" because it was not a payment to Mr Lowry.
Mr Owen O'Connell had carried out the trawl of Mr O'Brien's accounts to answer concerns expressed by the Esat Telecom board about a possible payment to Mr Lowry. Even if the board had known about the payment, he did not think it would have affected their decision to float the company on the stock exchange. "I don't believe they would have had any problem because of my explanation", he said.
Mr O'Brien said that he bought a house from Mr David Austin in Marbella, Spain, for £150,000 and paid this money from his Isle of Man account to Mr Austin's Jersey account in two lodgments in July and August 1996.
In October 1996, £147,000 of this money was used to open an account in Mr Lowry's name in the Isle of Man. The money was repaid into Mr Austin's account in February 1997.
"Why would I necessarily disclose every piece of business I've ever done with David Austin in the context of a Fine Gael donation?" Mr O'Brien asked. "It wasn't an issue."
He said he was not involved in the investigation into his bank accounts, but all the details of his "active, open accounts" had been put in front of Mr O'Connell.
If certain accounts should have been highlighted, that was a matter for his accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan, and his colleague, Ms Ann Foley, Mr O'Brien said.
Mr John Coughlan SC repeatedly asked Mr O'Brien why he had not told the tribunal about the house purchase until May of this year, a few weeks after RTE's Charlie Bird had reported on a £150,000 loan to Mr Lowry from Mr Austin.
"Isn't it so, Mr O'Brien, that it wasn't until the matter arose as a result of Mr Bird's broadcast that you, in the first instance, told the tribunal that you had bought a house from Mr Austin, and you gave the tribunal no further information in relation to that until queries were raised?"
Mr O'Brien said this line of questioning was "unbelievable" and he was being punished for being upfront in informing the tribunal. He agreed that he had not given the tribunal all the bank details about the transaction until last week but said he had been gathering the information since May.
A number of people had been trawling through his accounts to find out where the money came from. "We've given you the information as we got it", he said.
While these investigations were going on, he said, he did not believe his accountant, Mr Phelan, explained the background to the house transaction. "I don't recall him telling me anything like that", he said. "He has his team. He's trying to handle the [tribunal] inquiries. I'm trying to handle mine."
