Some of the wealthiest property developers in the State who were found by the planning tribunal to have bribed politicians and planning officials face having their assets confiscated by the Criminal Assets Bureau following the enactment at the weekend of new proceeds-of-crime legislation, writes Conor Lally.
Well-placed sources last night said CAB had already identified a high-profile multimillion-euro corruption case to which the new measures against "corrupt enrichment" would be first applied.
CAB will then target many of the businessmen who have appeared before the planning tribunal. Individuals behind two very high-profile companies involved in planning corruption are likely to be among the first targeted.
Gardaí have been unable to bring criminal corruption charges against these individuals because clear "cause-and-effect" evidence linking political donations and other payments to planning favours has been difficult to establish.
CAB will not need the same level of proof to confiscate the assets of corrupt individuals as would be needed to secure criminal convictions.
Under criminal law a conviction is only secured if a case is proven beyond reasonable doubt. However, all CAB's asset-confiscation cases are conducted under civil law, in which a case need only be proven on the balance of probabilities. This is a much lower burden of proof and has been used successfully by CAB to confiscate the assets of suspected drug dealers even when sufficient evidence does not exist to bring criminal charges against them.
Under the new Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act, 2005, which was signed into law by the President, Mrs McAleese, on Saturday, CAB can now apply to the High Court for a "corrupt enrichment order".
It can apply for this order in respect of any assets it believes have been accrued through corruption, including planning corruption.
Such an order can be granted to CAB on the basis of evidence given to the court by a chief superintendent or higher-ranking garda. The onus will be on the subject of such an order to explain how he or she accrued their wealth legitimately.
If the person cannot do this to the court's satisfaction the assets will be confiscated. The value of a confiscation will be decided by CAB.
The legislation has been primarily framed with the specific aim of targeting individuals who have been found by the planning tribunal to have acted corruptly.
However, CAB will not be permitted to build any case on the basis of evidence presented to the tribunal. Each case will have to be built by the CAB independent of the tribunal.
Other measures contained in the new legislation will also allow CAB to target the overseas assets of Irish drug dealers, even if these are based overseas.