Legal history was made yesterday when an Irish businessman accused of involvement in a corporate accounting scandal was arraigned by a US federal judge via international satellite video link.

It was the first time an Irish citizen has been arraigned in the Republic by a judge sitting in a foreign court.

During the eight-minute link up between the US court and the Distillery Court in Dublin, Jerry Shanahan was formally arraigned on a criminal complaint of wire fraud by Judge McAuliffe sitting at a court in New Hampshire.

The judge formally entered a not guilty plea to the complaint and allowed Mr Shanahan the same bail terms as previously, a bond of $100,000, and also permitted him to travel within the US and the EU for business purposes.

The next stage in the proceedings will come when a formal indictment is entered.

Mr Shanahan (42), a former chief operations officer with Enterasys Networks, a leading American software company, has already voluntarily stood trial in New Hampshire on six charges of conspiracy, wire and mail fraud.

Last December the married father of two from Carrigaline, Cork, was acquitted on one count and a mistrial declared after a jury was hung on the five remaining counts.

It later emerged that all but one juror wanted to acquit him on all charges, but the jury later became deadlocked after finding his four co-defendants guilty of fraud.

Unusually, Mr Shanahan has waived his extradition rights in an attempt to clear his name.

He has also agreed to be re-arraigned in Dublin despite major concerns about procedural aspects of his first trial and harsh sentences - equivalent to murder sentences served in the Republic - that have been imposed on his former colleagues. Last year Mr Shanahan was able to prove that a key prosecution witness had provided false testimony.

The corporate accounting scandal wiped more than $1 billion from the share price of Enterasys. He was accused of setting up fake deals with customers.