Key Denis O’Brien witness operated without licence

Digitpol, the company run by Martin Coyne, one of the key expert witnesses in Denis O'Brien's case against Red Flag Consulting, has operated in the Netherlands without a licence for more than two years.

Since August 2014, Digitpol has been listed with the Dutch chamber of commerce as a detective agency but it did not apply to the Ministry for Justice for a licence until August 2016.

In a statement this week to The Irish Times, the Dutch justice ministry said an application decision is likely before the end of October: "Conducting investigative activities without a licence is an economic crime."

Private investigators in the Netherlands require a licence and vocational qualifications, which Mr Coyne does not have: “It is up to the police and the Public Prosecution Service to consider whether there are grounds for criminal action against this company.”

In recent days, Digitpol’s website was redesigned and proclaims the company is involved in “intelligence reterival [sic] digital forensics” and has been “helping businesss [sic] and entrepreneurs since 2014”. The company says it provides “digital and investigative support” on a specialised basis.

Disclosed

Mr Coyne emerged as a key witness for Mr O’Brien when it was disclosed to the

High Court

that Mr O’Brien gave him the USB memory stick, on which the businessman’s case against Red Flag rests, on October 13th 2015. It has already been examined, at Mr O’Brien’s request, by

Espion

, a Sandyford-based digital forensic analysis firm.

Three days after giving the USB to Mr Coyne, who took it out of the jurisdiction, the High Court ordered that the stick be delivered "forthwith" into the safe keeping of Mr O'Brien's solicitor and that it should not be interfered with. However, it remained with Mr Coyne, allegedly in the Netherlands, for 10 days during which time files on it were accessed on numerous occasions, altered, and in some instances deleted, according to Red Flag's digital forensic analysts, Stroz Friedberg.

Mr Coyne’s name emerged only when Stroz Friedberg revealed that the USB had been, in their words, interfered with.

Mr O’Brien’s side deny any interference and say Mr O’Brien was entitled to have the USB “analysed by whatever suitably qualified person he chooses”.

For the case against Red Flag, Mr Coyne wrote three reports, describing what he did with the USB stick. The key associate of Mr Coyne in the handling of the USB stick is identified in the third report; other names from the first and second reports having been removed, only as “employee number 18883”. Number 18883 is, apparently, a key member of “Digitpol’s covert unit” whose “current involvement in a sensitive criminal investigation and the high degree of publicity attaching to the current proceedings” necessitates the cloak of secrecy as to his identity.

‘Uncomplimentary’

Mr O’Brien argues that the 339 files held on the USB assembled by Red Flag paint an uncomplimentary picture of him, his business activities and the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal, and are evidence of a criminal conspiracy to damage and defame him. Red Flag denies this while acknowledging the files were assembled for an as yet unidentified third party.

The only person known to obtain the files was Mark Hollingsworth, a sometime-journalist working simultaneously with London- based corporate intelligence company Alaco. After Alaco got the files, they were copied on to the USB stick that arrived, anonymously according to Mr O'Brien, on his desk in Dublin.

Mr O'Brien's lawyers have asserted repeatedly that Mr Coyne is a qualified digital forensic analyst. In July, The Irish Times reported that no record of a qualification from UCD as claimed existed. It was subsequent to this disclosure that Mr Coyne applied to regularise Digitpol's Dutch operations.

Both Mr Coyne and Mr O'Brien's lawyers have claimed repeatedly that Mr Coyne was a member of the Netherlands police force. An affidavit sworn by Mr O'Brien solicitors, Eames Solicitors, describes Mr Coyne twice as a former "member of the Netherlands Police Force".

Claimed relations

In the case against Red Flag, Mr Coyne has told Mr O’Brien’s lawyers that he has worked for the Dutch ministry of justice – from which he now seeks a detective company licence – and remains an adviser to the Dutch police. Mr Coyne has claimed a relationship with the Dutch police. The Rotterdam police says he did some work on car software, but no longer.

“He was never a member of police. He was a civilian contractor, assisting in a specific matter,” said a spokesman.