Ben Dunne "knowingly assisted Michael Lowry in evading tax" and gave large under-the-counter bonuses to various people, the report states. He assisted Mr Lowry's tax evasion by making substantial sterling payments to him into bank accounts in the Isle of Man and by the manner of the payment for Mr Lowry's house extension.
The report notes the "wide and unsupervised powers" the board of the Dunnes Holding Company gave Mr Dunne in running the group's financial affairs. It says a company's board of directors is responsible for the actions of the person it chooses as managing director and therefore the company must bear some of the blame for not having any proper supervisory procedure.
Mr Justice McCracken is cautious in ascribing motives to Mr Dunne for his various payments to politicians. He describes him as "an impetuously generous person" but says the tribunal was not charged with conducting a "psychological study" of Mr Dunne.
This generosity was shown in his reaction to the Fine Gael Party's request for funds, when he paid £180,000 in three separate payments. It was seen too when he wrote a cheque for £15,000 for Mrs Mary Robinson's presidential election campaign, after Mr Ruairi Quinn told him the campaign could do with more money.
He gave payments totalling £48,500 to 10 politicians towards election expenses between 1987 and 1994 and £9,100 to three local political party organisations.
But this generosity does not explain his donations to Mr Haughey, according to the report. Making payments over a long period and making elaborate arrangements for the transfer of funds from the Far East through lawyers in Switzerland was not "a spontaneous act".
While noting that "it is no part of the function of the tribunal to conduct a psychological study of Mr Dunne", Mr Justice McCracken posits a possible explanation for Mr Dunne's behaviour: "It does appear to the tribunal that a possible motive for the actions of Mr Ben Dunne, in the absence of any ulterior political motive, was simply to buy the friendship, or at least the acquaintance, of a person in a very powerful political position."
The report notes that at the time of the initial request to him for funds, Mr Dunne had only a casual acquaintance with Mr Haughey. "After the first payment was made, his contacts with Mr Charles Haughey became much more frequent, although the payment and receipt of the monies remained an unspoken bond between them."
The report finds no evidence of any favours asked by Mr Dunne of Mr Haughey, save a request by Mr Dunne for a meeting with the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. All Mr Haughey did was arrange the meeting. He made no representations on Mr Dunne's behalf.