Every time Mr Ben Dunne is questioned closely about the running of the Dunnes Stores group during his period as executive director, unorthodox practices, to say the least, emerge.
Yesterday, counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, questioned Mr Dunne closely about structures in Hong Kong, Switzerland and the Isle of Man, which together created a sort of slush fund for Mr Dunne and his siblings.
Dunnes sourced goods in the Far East. It began to deal with two procurement agents, Wytrex and Carica, which were not owned by the Dunnes group but the finances of which were, broadly, under his control. The group would pay the companies approximately 5 per cent more than was due for the goods they were providing to Dunnes and this money would eventually end up as the "profits" or surpluses of the Far Eastern companies. Mr Dunne said he considered these monies to be his.
He would travel to the Far East on occasion and every 12 to 18 months return with bank drafts for sums of £100,000 or £200,000. Other monies from the operation were sent to a trust company in Switzerland, Equifex, or to a company based in the Isle of Man called Tutbury Ltd. This money was available for his use.
The Dunnes group is owned by a trust and money belonging to the group should not be used for non-group or non-trust purposes. However, the structure which involved routing Dunnes money to the Far East and back again allowed group funds to be taken out of the control of the trust.
Mr Dunne, when he fell out with his siblings in the early 1990s, took a case against the trust, arguing that it was a sham, and as part of his argument he pointed out that trust money had been given to Mr Haughey. The case was settled out of court, but it was when these allegations were leaked to The Irish Times some years later that the McCracken tribunal and Moriarty tribunal processes were set in train.
The three bank drafts, for a total of £210,000 sterling, that Mr Haughey was given by Mr Dunne in Kinsealy in November 1991 came from Tutbury. A payment of £471,000 sterling routed to the Ansbacher deposits in August 1988 came from Equifex. The same holds for a further payment of £150,000 sterling in May 1989. Some £200,000 sterling transferred in March 1990 came from Tutbury.
Mr Michael Lowry received £40,000 sterling in August 1991 from Tutbury and a similar amount in May 1992, again from Tutbury.
Since the McCracken tribunal, a further three payments to Mr Haughey totalling £665,000 sterling have been discovered. One, for £200,000 sterling in November 1990, was transferred from Wytrex to the Ansbacher deposits. Mr Dunne yesterday said he has no memory of authorising the payment, though he accepted that he must have done so.
Mr Noel Fox, Mr Dunne's financial adviser at the time, repeatedly insisted he had had nothing to do with the payment even though he was usually the conduit between Mr Dunne and the late Mr Des Traynor in relation to payments to Mr Haughey.
Mr Fox, a Dunnes trustee, also said he did not know of the arrangement with the Far Eastern companies. He thought the money being given to Mr Haughey was coming from Mr Dunne's personal finances.
Mr Dunne said on occasion he would have sums as large as £100,000 transferred from the Far Eastern money to business associates. Sometimes he might have bank accounts opened abroad to receive this money for these people. He did not name any of the individuals involved.