The late Mr Des Traynor and two other former Haughey Boland accountants had links with Jordan Estates Ltd, the money-lending firm which earlier this year was found to be charging the highest interest rate in the State.
In the 1970s a company registered in the offices of Haughey Boland made an investment in the money-lending firm. The articles of association of Jordan Estates indicate that an accruing preferential dividend of 140 per cent per annum was to be paid on the investment.
The Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, disclosed in January this year that Jordan Estates, of 102-103 Amiens Street, Dublin, charges the highest APR of the 65 money-lending firms licensed with her office. The company charges from 197 per cent on a 20-week loan to 18.5 per cent on a 36-week loan.
Files in the Companies Office show that Mr Maurice E. O'Kelly, a former accountant with Haughey Boland and former senior executive director with Guinness & Mahon bank, was a director of Jordan Estates.
Mr Jack Stakelum, another former accountant with Haughey Boland, who in the early 1990s ran the bill-paying service for Mr Haughey, was also a director.
Mr Traynor, who was financial adviser to Mr Haughey, was a director of Enigma Variations Ltd, the company which invested in Jordan Estates in 1974. Companies Office files indicate the investment was about £7,253.
Enigma got 29,015 ordinary B shares at 25p each in Jordan Estates. The shares were issued that year and were the only B shares issued. Mr O'Kelly joined the board of Jordan Estates.
Enigma was incorporated in 1969, and Mr Traynor and Mr William G.L. Forwood, of Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, were directors. Both men were also directors of Guinness & Mahon.
Enigma was 40 per cent-owned by Guinness & Mahon Investments Ltd and 60 per cent-owned by New Ireland Assurance Co Ltd. Mr Traynor was a director of New Ireland Assurance Co Ltd.
In 1974, the year the Guinness & Mahon subsidiary Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust was given its banking licence in the Cayman Islands, Mr Traynor resigned from Enigma and was replaced by Mr O'Kelly.
The files indicate that when Enigma sold its shareholding in 1986, it received at least £105,000.
Mr O'Kelly could not be contacted last night. Mr Stakelum, who joined the board of Jordan Estates in 1988, two years after Mr O'Kelly resigned, and who resigned himself two years ago, said last night that, although he was not involved in the company at the time of the Enigma investment, he was doubtful it had made anything like a 140 per cent per annum return.
He said he knew the rates charged by Jordan Estates "sound atrocious", but the return on such loans was collected in small amounts door to door on weekend evenings. "There are huge costs, as you can imagine, and people need this sort of service."
Jordan Estates would say it was in the respectable end of the market. "There are unregistered people out there who break legs," he said.