Dublin businessman Mr Tom Forde has cancelled his expected appearance at one of Switzerland's biggest-ever money laundering trials.
Mr Forde was invited to appear at the trial of Mr Paul Murphy (40), from Bray, Co Wicklow, who is accused of laundering £4.5 million (€5.7 million) used to finance drug dealing through Swiss banks.
In a fax he sent to the court in Lugano, Mr Forde said he was unable to attend the trial because of unspecified health problems.
"I do not wish to appear disrespectful to the honourable court . . . but I am prepared to offer whatever evidence is requested of me," he wrote, adding that he would be prepared to testify either in front of an Irish judge, or via a video link.
Mr Forde was invited to appear by defence attorney Mr Matteo Pedrazzini to answer questions about his alleged role as an informer for the US Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA), but any future appearance is now unlikely.
Mr Forde was on the advisory board of e-Pawn, a US Internet company, whose merger talks with the Irish recruitment Marlborough Group collapsed after FBI agents arrested directors, not including Mr Forde, in an anti-mafia sting.
The two defendants in the trial in Lugano, Mr Paul Murphy and British businessman Mr Andrew Winter, have admitted the money laundering charges against them. They brought 21 caseloads of banknotes into Switzerland from the US, Britain and Italy.
The money, totalling £4.5 million, was later transferred back to the US, where prosecutors suspect the funds were transferred to Colombia.
The men are said to have been paid $200,000 commission for laundering the money using a system the defence has described as "anything but sophisticated". Both men say they know nothing of the source of the cash.
Prosecutor Ms Maria Galliani says the cash came from the sale of hundreds of kilos of Colombian cocaine sent to dealers around Europe. She intends to prove the men knew the cash was drug money.
The caseloads of banknotes originated with a Mr Todd Faught in the US. Mr Faught has a drug record with the Drug Enforcement Agency going back to 1977 and is currently serving a prison sentence in Florida for money laundering offences.
Another contact of the two men is a Mr Alfredo Becerra, a Colombian-born man living in Palermo, Italy, who was arrested in 1984 in possession of 4.5kg of cocaine.
Mr Murphy and Mr Winter both deny ever having contacted Mr Becerra. However, prosecutors have produced phone records to show calls made to Mr Becerra in 1998 using a mobile phone SIM card shared between Mr Murphy and Mr Winter.
The case has taken two years to come to trial because of the complicated investigation involved, the results of which sit filed in 10 large cardboard boxes in the Lugano courtroom.
The story has been dubbed "Cash and Go" by the Swiss media after the bogus firm used to launder the money in the US, Cash and Go Title Loans.
Mr Murphy and Mr Winter have been imprisoned in Switzerland since 1998. They face minimum sentences of five years each for money-laundering and a maximum sentence of 20 years if found guilty of financing drug dealings.
A simple majority verdict of the seven-member jury can decide the case, which is expected to continue for another week.
