Prosecutors consider ‘charging decision’ against two suspects over Nama inquiry

The Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service is considering potential "charging decisions" in relation to two suspects identified by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) as part its investigation into the £1.2 billion sale of Nama's Northern Ireland assets.

The NCA has confirmed that it has submitted a file to the PPS and this file is now under active consideration.

It is the first time that the NCA has formally submitted to a file to the PPS since it launched its investigation into the sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland assets in July 2015.

The American investment firm Cerberus acquired the entire former Nama loan portfolio, which was known as Project Eagle, for £1.24 billion in April 2014.

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Just over a year later the Independent TD Mick Wallace alleged in the Dáil that £7 million had been lodged in a bank account in the Isle of Man that was "reportedly earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician or party" following the NAMA transaction.

Mr Wallace’s revelations led to a number of inquiries into the sale of NAMA’s Northern Ireland loan book including those of Stormont’s former Committee for Finance and Personnel and the US Department of Justice’s Securities and Exchange Commission.

It also sparked a criminal investigation by the PSNI who, in 2015, said that there was “sufficient concern in relation to potential criminal activity surrounding this property deal to instigate an investigation”. The PSNI subsequently asked the UK’s NCA to take the lead on the investigation.

The NCA has previously outlined that its investigation into the sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland portfolio is a “high priority operation”.

It is a wide ranging investigation which is “examining the actual Nama NI loan book purchase and dispersal of fees offshore; the nature, extent and probity of the relationships and roles of persons involved in the process, including allegations of corruption, the broader Nama NI loan book portfolio sale process, including previous purchase attempts and offences suspected of having been committed under UK law.”

During the course of the investigation the agency has to date questioned 66 people in relation to the Nama sale.

It is understood that a total of nine potential suspects are currently under investigation.

Three people have also been arrested as part of the investigation but were later released without charge.

In June 2016 the TD Mick Wallace used parliamentary privilege in the Dáil to name two of the people which he said had been arrested by the NCA. He identified them as Ronnie Hanna, who was NAMA's former head of asset recovery and the Northern Ireland businessman Frank Cushnahan, who was a member of NAMA's Northern Ireland advisory committee.

Five months later Mr Hanna confirmed to the Dáil’s Committee of Public Accounts, by letter, that he had been arrested on allegations which he “vehemently denied” and that he had, at that time, not received any indication from either the NCA/PSNI or the Public Prosecution Service that he was “no longer a suspect”.

Both Mr Hanna and Mr Cushnahan have consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation their dealings with NAMA.

Neither of the two suspects identified in the file which the NCA has recently submitted to the PPS in the North for “charging decisions” have been publicly identified by the agency.

But it is understood that neither Mr Hanna or Mr Cushnahan are named in the NCA file which is currently under review by the PPS.