THE John Furze named in bank accounts which received payments of more than £1 million from Mr Ben Dunne is believed to be a banker living in the Cayman Islands who had links with the Dublin merchant bank Guinness & Mahon.
Mr Furze helped the late Irish businessman, Mr Des Traynor, to establish the Guinness & Mahon operation in the Cayman Islands in the 1970s.
Mr Dunne alleged in a court affidavit that he had made payments of £1.1 million into London bank accounts opened in the name of "John Furze" in the early 1990s. The affidavit is understood to allege that the ultimate beneficiary of this money was a Fianna Fail politician.
The affidavit was drawn up by Mr Dunne as part of a legal action, later settled, against the rest of the Dunne family. This meant the affidavit was withdrawn and never became public.
Sources have said the name in which the London bank accounts were opened is not fictitious but is the Cayman Islands banker.
Mr Furze lives in the Cayman Islands where he runs International Insurance Management Corporation.
In 1971 he helped Mr Traynor set up the Guinness & Mahon funds management operation there.
At that time Mr Traynor was deputy chairman of Guinness & Mahon in Ireland. The Cayman Islands operation was controlled from Dublin until 1985, when the London parent took over responsibility.
In 1988 the Cayman bank was taken over by Henry Ansbacher. Mr Furze stayed on, leaving Ansbacher in May 1995.
Mr Furze was not available for comment at his office or at his home yesterday.
The managing director of Ansbacher in the Cayman Islands, Mr Brian Bothwell, was also unavailable for comment.
The Cayman Islands is a noted financial centre in the Gulf of Mexico.
Many major financial institutions have offshore branches there and it is also home to many private banking and financial operations.
Guinness & Mahon grew to be a large and profitable business, with deposit assets thought to be more than £100 million when control was taken by London in 1985.
Mr Traynor started his career with Haughey Boland, where he qualified as an accountant. He later moved to Guinness & Mahon, leaving in 1986 and later taking a series of company directorships, including becoming chairman of CRH. He died in 1994.
Judge Gerard Buchanan is examining a report by consultants Price Waterhouse on payments made by Mr Dunne while he was managing director of Dunnes Stores. It may be open to the judge to seek Mr Dunne's court affidavit, to ascertain the beneficial recipients of payments made by Dunnes into offshore accounts.
It is not clear whether Dunnes Stores would be willing, or legally able, to hand over the document.
The Price Waterhouse report was commissioned by Mr Dunne's sister, Ms Margaret Heffernan, in preparation for the court action in which he sought to realise his stake in the family trust.
Price Waterhouse examined Mr Dunne's record while he was in charge of the company and payments made by him. It is understood it discovered that substantial company funds were lodged in overseas bank accounts.
It is not clear to what extent the investigation now under way by the judge, or any subsequent inquiry, will seek to trace funds moved from Dunnes Stores into overseas accounts and then on to other locations.
Under the terms of an agreement reached between Dunnes Stores and the Government, the judge can request from Dunnes further documentation to help to establish the beneficiaries of payments in the Price Waterhouse report.