The auditor of the company at the centre of the Garda investigation into alleged Provisional IRA money-laundering resigned its post a week after £2.3 million (€3.37 million) was seized at the home of the principal figure in the company, it has emerged.
Desmond Gibbons & Co notified the Companies Office last month that it had resigned from the money-lending business Chesterton Finance Ltd and two associated entities, Financial & Legal Clients Ltd and Insurance Concepts Ltd. Ted Cunningham, the businessman who was arrested by gardaí and released without charge, is also a director of all three companies.
Chesterton Finance Ltd is involved in secured lending and investment in real estate.
The investigation into the company's affairs became public when gardaí seized £2.3 million at a house owned by Mr Cunningham in Farran, Co Cork.
Gardaí also discovered a man burning a large amount of sterling banknotes in a back garden in Passage West, Co Cork.
Senior Gardaí believe this money was linked to the Northern Bank raid last December, which has been blamed on the Provisional IRA.
While the operations of Chesterton Finance are completely unregulated, the activities of its auditor are regulated by Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (Ifsra). Desmond Gibbons & Co is based in Skibbereen, Co Cork.
Gerard Desmond of Desmond Gibbons & Co declined to comment when contacted yesterday. Mr Cunningham did not return a call to his home in Co Cork.
According to letters lodged in the Companies Office, Mr Desmond resigned as auditor to the three companies on February 24th, six days after the garda investigation into Chesterton Finance became public.
"In light of recent events surrounding this company regarding the issue of "money laundering" and in particular the allegations being made concerning one of its directors, it is inappropriate for us to continue to act as auditors of this company," Mr Desmond said in a letter to the directors of Chesterton Finance.
He made similar remarks in his letters to the directors of Financial & Legal Clients Ltd and Insurance Concepts Ltd.
The most recent audit reports show that Desmond Gibbons & Co said the latest abridged accounts for each of the three companies gave a "true and fair view" of the state of their affairs.
While independent confirmation of the completeness of the accounting records was not available, the auditor said in each case that it had accepted the assurances of the directors that all transactions had been reflected in the financial statements.
Desmond Gibbons & Co was not the only auditor engaged by firms linked to Mr Cunningham.
Filings for another entity in which he was a director, Carlisle Finance Company, show that it engaged Gerard Murphy & Co of Midleton, Co Cork. Special audit reports annexed to the 2001 and 2002 abridged accounts for Carlisle Finance Company Ltd show that Gerard Murphy & Co was unable to form an opinion as to whether the financial statements gave a true and fair view "due to the possible effect of the limitation in evidence available to us".
