Former Anglo officials accused of hiding data on accounts

An account held in Anglo Irish Bank was not furnished to the Revenue Commissioners because it was connected with the bank's former chairman Sean FitzPatrick, the jury in the trial of three former Anglo officials has been told.

In his opening statement at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Dominic McGinn SC, for the prosecution, said an account held by John Peter O'Toole, Mr FitzPatrick's brother-in-law, was deliberately omitted from a list of non-resident accounts given to Revenue in March 2003.

He told the jury of six men and six women that in 2004, there were also attempts to delete information from the bank’s database about the account, about another of Mr O’Toole’s accounts, and six other accounts. The motivation for that was a connection between the accounts and Mr FitzPatrick, he said. There was a concerted effort made to conceal them for the purpose of not paying tax.

Aoife Maguire (60) of Rothe Abbey, South Circular Road, Kilmainham, Dublin, Bernard Daly (65) of Collins Avenue West, Whitehall, Dublin and Tiarnan O’Mahoney (54) of Glen Pines, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow are facing charges for alleged offences under the Companies Act 1990 and the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 between March 2003 and December 2004.

They have pleaded not guilty.

All three are accused of conspiring to destroy, mutilate or falsify documents relating to accounts of Mr O’Toole held at Anglo.

Destroy records

Mr Daly and Mr O’Mahoney are accused of furnishing a list of bank accounts in connection with tax that did not include Mr O’Toole’s. And Ms Maguire and Mr O’Mahoney are accused of conspiring to destroy the records of six accounts and defraud revenue.

The accounts were listed as Lock Ltd/Suzie Ltd, Carnahalla Ltd/Suzie Ltd, Lock Ltd, Carnahalla Ltd, Triumvirate Properties Ltd and Sean FitzPatrick Trust/Crohan O’Shea Trust.

Mr McGinn told the jury that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Revenue contacted all banks to ask them about non-resident accounts and Anglo told them they had none. However, when a tax amnesty followed, some people came forward who had such accounts in Anglo, and Revenue decided to investigate.

It sought three lists of non-resident accounts of over €100,000 held in March 1990, 1995 and 1999.

To comply with that, a team was set up in the bank led by Mr Daly, with Mr O’Mahoney in a supervisory role. And Ms Maguire was appointed by Mr O’Mahoney to report directly to him and influence team members, Mr McGinn said.

In November 2003, lists were provided to revenue and Mr O’Toole’s name was left off the March 1995 list.

Mr Daly and Mr O’Mahoney had conversations separately with team members, who both refused to omit Mr O’Toole’s name from the list and they were removed from the team, Mr McGinn said.

Uncomfortable

In 2004, staff in the IT department were instructed to delete references to Mr O’Toole’s accounts and to six other accounts from the database.

The IT department was “uncomfortable” and so instead archived the information.

“To a greater or lesser extent, Sean FitzPatrick has involvement in this case,” Mr McGinn said.

He told the jury the six accounts were set up to trade off-shore or manage property and were held in the Isle of Man or Jersey, but they were Anglo accounts.

All three accused were involved in the attempt to delete Mr O’Toole’s accounts from the bank system, Mr McGinn said, and Mr O’Toole’s name was removed from the tax list by Mr Daly and Mr O’Mahoney.

Mr O’Mahoney and Ms Maguire were involved in an agreement to delete the other six accounts and hide references to them in the bank system, Mr McGinn said.

He also said the prosecution did not have to prove that Revenue was actually defrauded.

The trial continues before Judge Patrick McCartan on Tuesday.