It was only two months ago that the Moriarty tribunal discovered that the Kerry TD, Mr Denis Foley, had money in the Ansbacher deposits, despite extensive inquiries which have been under way for more than two years.
A 20-month investigation into the Ansbacher deposits by Mr Gerry Ryan, an authorised officer appointed by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, failed to identify Mr Foley. Mr Ryan's report was given to the tribunal, which was conducting its own inquiries. Neither had uncovered the Fianna Fail TD.
Mr Padraig Collery, a former Guinness & Mahon banker, identified some of the depositors during a tribunal hearing last year from which the public was excluded, but told the tribunal the owner of a particular coded account, A/A90, was the late Cayman banker, Mr John Furze. The real owner of that account was Mr Foley.
Mr Foley, vice-president of the Public Accounts Committee, had been questioned by lawyers for that committee's DIRT inquiry but did not tell them about his ownership of the offshore account.
In May, when the committee was preparing for its public hearings, Mr Foley got statements from Mr Collery, bearing the names Ansbacher Cayman Ltd and Hamilton Ross Co Ltd, and showing his balance on his offshore account. In September Mr Foley took part in the televised DIRT hearings.
Meanwhile, Mr Collery had left some documents in a sealed package with Ms Margaret Keogh, an employee at Guinness & Mahon. From his comments to her, Ms Keogh decided Mr Collery wanted her to hold the documents until he had a chance to bring them to his native Sligo. She got worried, contacted a solicitor and on the solicitor's advice contacted the tribunal. After two years of evasion, Mr Foley was caught.
Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel for the tribunal, in a lengthy opening statement, detailed some of the evidence Mr Foley is expected to give the tribunal. A former rates collector, Mr Foley organised dances back in the 1960s and 1970s for the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Co Kerry, and the Central Hotel in Ballybunion.
The Kerry property developer, Mr John Byrne, was involved with both these hotels. Mr Foley met the late Mr Des Traynor in the mid-1960s, when Mr Traynor was a partner in Haughey Boland.
In the mid-1970s Mr Traynor, then with Guinness & Mahon bank, told Mr Foley he could get him a good return on any funds he might have, and in 1979 Mr Foley invested £50,000. It seems the lodgment may have been made in cash. The money was invested in a Guinness & Mahon company in the Channel Islands, and then redeposited back in Dublin.
Mr Foley received very little information about his investment. In March 1988 he was informed it had grown to £82,688 sterling. In April 1989 he withdrew £20,000. In June 1993 he withdrew a further £10,000. By this stage the money was being held in a pooled account with Irish Intercontinental Bank, the same account where Mr Charles Haughey's money was lodged.
After Mr Traynor died in 1994, Mr Foley was worried about his investment. In August 1995 he got in contact with Mr Collery. In September 1995 Mr Foley made a withdrawal of £50,000. The money was handed over by Mr Collery, in cash, during a meeting in Jury's Hotel, Dublin.
Mr Foley converted the money into two bank drafts and kept these in his possession until recently. It is understood the money has now been handed to the Revenue as part of Mr Foley's current settlement negotiations.
From documentation displayed on the overhead projector during yesterday's hearing, it seems Mr Foley's balance on his offshore account was recently as much as £135,000 sterling.
Mr Foley had opened an ordinary resident account with Guinness & Mahon bank in December 1986, with a lodgment of £3,000. With subsequent lodgments, the balance by November 1990 had grown to £24,000. Mr Foley closed the account and the money was put into his offshore account.
Mr Coughlan also revealed that Central Tourist Holdings Ltd, a company Mr Foley owned along with Mr Byrne, Mr Thomas Clifford and the late Mr William Clifford, borrowed £70,000 from Guinness & Mahon in 1972, and the loan was backed by money in the Ansbacher deposits.
By September 1985 the loan had been settled although, Mr Coughlan said, the bank continued to issue statements as if it had not been settled and interest was still accruing.
Two other public figures who featured during yesterday's hearing were the former EU commissioner, Mr Peter Sutherland, and the former minister, the late Mr Hugh Coveney.
In Mr Sutherland's case, Mr Coughlan said a bridging loan Mr Sutherland took out from Guinness & Mahon bank in 1976 when buying a family home in Dublin was covered by normal facilities, including the lodgment of a deed with a solicitor.
The loan was extended, however, and an internal document on the bank's files shows the loan was additionally backed by funds in an account with Guinness Mahon in the Channel Islands. The account had a balance of £12,296.
Mr Coughlan said Mr Sutherland has informed the tribunal that his father-in-law, a Spanish resident, had a discretionary trust in the Channel Islands. The trust was established through Guinness & Mahon after consultations with Irish tax advisers, and was moved to the Cayman Islands in 1980. Mr Coughlan made it clear there was nothing to suggest Mr Sutherland had money in any Ansbacher deposits.
In Mr Coveney's case, Mr Coughlan said the former minister for the marine had an account with the Ansbacher deposits from 1972 to 1979, with the bulk of the money in the account believed to have come from the sale of a racing yacht, Silver Apple, in the US in 1975.
Mr Coveney also had dealings with Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust (now Ansbacher Cayman) in relation to a business deal involving a trailer park in Arizona in 1980. The project was a commercial failure and Mr Coveney lost £50,000 sterling to Guinness Mahon, and $500,000 to AIB New York. The commercial relationship with Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust came to an end in 1987.
It was also revealed yesterday that the Central Bank had evidence since the 1970s of Guinness & Mahon bank facilitating tax evasion through its offshore subsidiaries and the use of back-to-back loans. It seems the Central Bank was unable to punish Guinness & Mahon in any way, and was also prevented by law from informing the Revenue.