By the end of next week, both the officer appointed by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and the Moriarty Tribunal team will have extensive details of the Ansbacher deposits. Two investigations of the details of the deposits held in two Irish banks will then get underway.
Where this process will end is not clear. The tribunal team is empowered to look for any links not only with the former Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, but also with any other politician or public official. In doing so it will trawl all the details held by Guinness & Mahon and Irish Intercontinental Bank - the two banks where the deposits were held - as well as seeking details from banks abroad, including Ansbacher in the Cayman Islands, in whose name the deposits were held.
The tribunal, if it is successful in its investigations, will uncover and make public details of any payments to politicians or public officials connected with the Ansbacher deposits. If, beyond that, it believes that the deposits were used as a device for tax evasion by private citizens, the tribunal could decide to make recom mendations on this issue, or perhaps even decide pass information to the Revenue Commissioners.
Meanwhile, the Tanaiste is using company law to attack the deposits from another angle. On the basis of information discovered by authorised officer, Mr Gerard Ryan, in a study of Celtic Helicopters, she has appointed Mr Ryan to undertake a general trawl of the deposits for any evidence of breaches of company, tax or exchange control rules.
He has already received information from Guinness & Mahon and it appears likely that, despite a court challenge, Irish Intercontinental Bank will also hand over documents. The authorised officer cannot publish his findings. But he can send details to the Revenue Commissioners or the DPP, or provide evidence in any court case. And, if Ms Harney felt it was warranted, she could to follow up under company law with the appointment of an inspector. The inspector would have High Court powers to examine witnesses and could publish a report.
So if the names of private deposit holders in the Ansbacher deposits - which amounted to as much as £38 million - can be uncovered, they are likely to find their way to the Revenue Commissioners. It is not clear, however, that they would ever be published.
But can the identifies be uncovered? Informed sources say that, despite the fact that full records of the beneficiaries were not kept in the Irish banking system, the information now becoming available should allow many to be identified. One reason is that part of the operation of the accounts involved loans being extended to individuals, above and beyond the money they had deposited.
These loans were, in turn, guaranteed or backed by some other funds in the total deposits. Records of the beneficiaries of these loans is likely to be available from the bank information supplied to the tribunal and the authorised officer.
It may take some detailed detective work, but the secrets of the Ansbacher deposits look set to be slowly uncovered.
