ANALYSIS: A key figure in the tribunal's money trail inquiry has been summonsed
WHY THE Moriarty tribunal chose to hold a public sitting yesterday which was immediately adjourned is not clear, but the appearance of English solicitor Christopher Vaughan on the scene is a surprise development.
Vaughan is a key figure in a number of the “money trail” elements of the years’ long tribunal inquiry into matters to do with former minister Michael Lowry and businessman Denis O’Brien.
Because he resides in England, Vaughan cannot be compelled to come to Dublin to give evidence. He has met in private with the tribunal legal team, once in Dublin and once in England, but he has never acceeded to requests that he come and give evidence.
The tribunal has investigated the purchase of property in Cheadle, Mansfield and Doncaster, with a view to establishing whether any of the transactions involved Lowry receiving financial benefit from O’Brien. Vaughan acted in all three transactions.
Two years ago when O’Brien was giving evidence, it emerged that Vaughan had been in Dublin in March of that year and had so informed LK Shields, a solicitors firm working for the company through which O’Brien bought a property in Doncaster.
Counsel for the tribunal, John Coughlan SC, pointed out that if the tribunal had been informed, it could have served a witness summons on the English solicitor.
On Wednesday, O’Brien’s new legal representative, solicitor Paul Meagher, wrote to the tribunal informing it that Vaughan was coming to Dublin to help O’Brien’s legal team reply to the tribunal’s provisional findings, which were issued on November 18th.
He said he also wanted to establish if Vaughan would be willing to attend the tribunal to give evidence.
The tribunal then contacted Vaughan, and he came to the tribunal yesterday morning for a meeting.
He was served with a summons to appear “forthwith” before the tribunal.
This seems to have caught a lot of people by surprise. The media were given 15 minutes’ notice, as was Meagher. Vaughan was not put into the witness box and the proceedings were immediately adjourned so a date could be arranged for an organised hearing.
In his brief comment to the proceedings, Vaughan appeared to agree that he would return to give evidence when a date can be arranged.
As well as the property transactions, the tribunal is investigating whether letters from Vaughan’s files, which were given to the tribunal, had been altered before they were delivered.
If Vaughan does return to Ireland to give evidence, this will be another matter on which he will no doubt be questioned.
The announcement that William Fry solicitors, who have been acting for O’Brien since 2001 when O’Brien first became embroiled in the tribunal’s inquiries into Lowry, no longer act for him came as a surprise.
No explanation was given for the development, which is a dramatic one, as the tribunal’s inquiries, which have gone on for so long, are nearing their end.
The tribunal chairman has sent out excerpts of his draft findings to affected parties.
It appears that rather than respond by way of written submissions, some of the parties are insisting that particular witnesses be called to give evidence relevant to particular draft findings.
Meagher referred yesterday to a witness possibly being called on Friday the 13th, which would appear to be a reference to two weeks’ time. So the process appears to be imminent.
Mr Justice Moriarty’s draft findings are likely to emerge piecemeal during these sittings. A finding that Lowry received money from O’Brien, and/or that Lowry interfered in the mobile phone licence competition in 1995 that was won by O’Brien’s Esat Digifone, would be a massive blow to the reputation of Ireland Inc, at a particularly unfortunate time.
