The fraud trial of former financier Mr Finbarr Ross, accused of swindling investors, heard yesterday that, when his Gibraltar based company went into liquidation, the "greed and graft" that was Dublin in the 1980s prevented depositors ever getting a penny of their money back.
The claim was made in final submissions by Mr Ross's defence QC Mr Arthur Harvey, who asked the Belfast jury to question what happened to properties the company, International Investments Ltd, had acquired before going bust in 1984.
The lawyer said that before the official liquidation, headed by Mr James Galliano, matters were taken up by a Gibraltar accountant Mr Tim Revell. But, on being replaced, all his "energy was simply cast into the lumber room of history. It was placed there to gather dust".
Detailing assets which were sold for far less than their valuations or which allegedly "disappeared" without raising a penny for investors, Mr Harvey said it was an "extraordinary state of affairs". But he added: "Extraordinary, unless he (Mr Galliano) was not really the person in command of the liquidation but had passed that over to others and failed to properly and adequately supervise them."
The trial continues today.
