‘Nama did in three years what the terrorists couldn’t do in 50 ’

“Nama did in three years without firing a shot what the terrorists couldn’t do in 50 years,” property developer Paddy Kearney said when giving evidence to the Stormont Inquiry into Nama’s sale of property in Northern Ireland.

Belfast born Paddy Kearney, one of the Maple 10 group of business people who purchased shares in Anglo Irish Bank in 2008, also said Cerberus Capital Management who acquired the Project Eagle Portfolio for £1.2 billion was one of the most "robust" commercial organisations he had ever dealt with.

“Cerberus do not do sweet heart deals,” he said.

Mr Kearney said he had voluntarily decided to give evidence to the committee today to address what he described as "ridiculous" and "ludicrous" allegations that had been levelled against him in relation to a number of issues from his alleged friendship and dealings with Peter Robinson, the North's First Minister to Cerberus.

He said past evidence presented to the committee alleged that he was in some way involved with others in manipulating in a criminal, corrupt manner the sale and purchase of the Northern Ireland Nama loan book resulting in a sweet heart deal for himself and his company – then known as PBN Holdings - from Cerberus.

Mr Kearney told the committee these allegations were “unfounded and unsubstantiated”.

He was at pains to stress that he had not received preferential treatment from either Cerberus or Nama during his dealings with them.

Mr Kearney also reiterated that he “was not and had not been involved at any time in fixing, dirty or corrupt, crooked activity”.

Campaign

Instead the property developer, who is now largely based in Gibraltar suggested he was the subject of a campaign by faceless individuals who had an agenda driven by “envy, mal-intent, resentment and a sick need for revenge”.

He said given their “so called professional status” these individuals should know better.

Mr Kearney declined to reveal the identities of the people he referred to but he sharply criticised the Stormont inquiry for what he described as “being used” without “first insisting on seeing some hard evidence”.

He was also highly critical of the role Nama played during its time in the North and in particular the way he had been treated by the agency.

Mr Kearney said that Nama had sought to “frighten and intimidate” him to give up control of his company and then also to bribe him with the promise of debt forgiveness.

But he said he had refused all the agency’s advances and had never wanted debt forgiveness because in his opinion he had not done anything wrong.

The developer outlined to the committee that it was against this backdrop that he had got in touch with Peter Robinson during what he described as the “battle of my life” to ask him for any help he could offer in dealing with Nama.

Mr Kearney confirmed that Mr Robinson had subsequently written a letter to Nama drawing attention to his particular case.

He said there was nothing improper regarding his conduct and that Mr Robinson in his opinion had been “unfairly criticised for doing his job”.

The businessman declared to the committee that he was not Nama’s biggest fan and viewed the arrival of Cerberus as a positive development for Northern Ireland.

He said it was his belief that “the political leaders of Northern Ireland did the right thing by lobbying investors to buy the Northern Ireland portfolio from Nama.”

Because he felt that if Nama’s operations had continued much longer the future would have been very grim.

Mr Kearney said as a result of how Nama dealt with its Northern Ireland portfolio it would have been “death by a thousand cuts for the Northern Ireland economy”.