A former client of TV personality and financial adviser Eddie Hobbs who moved funds offshore in the 1990s had to subsequently make a €1.25 million settlement with the Revenue, writes Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent
The former client has told The Irish Times that he did not inform Mr Hobbs at the time that some of the money was undeclared. The case has been brought to the attention of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
Dr George Lyons, of Unacullen, Clahane, Ballyard, Tralee, Co Kerry, recently made a €1.25 million tax settlement with the Revenue over a bogus non-resident account.
He said he never told Mr Hobbs that some of the money being moved offshore was from a bogus non-resident account. "I didn't bring it to his attention," he said. "I don't think I would have ever said to him that some of this would have been from a bogus non-resident account."
At the time of the transactions Mr Hobbs was working for the Tony Taylor group of investment firms, which collapsed in 1996. Mr Taylor was later jailed for fraud.
Mr Hobbs, when asked about the case, told The Irish Times he was bound by client confidentiality. "I can state that I have never acted unlawfully," he said.
The transactions are cited in a complaint Mr Taylor has sent to the financial regulator and in which Mr Taylor questions Mr Hobbs' fitness to act as an authorised financial adviser. In the complaint Mr Taylor alleges that Mr Hobbs facilitated tax evasion while working for the Taylor group. He cited Dr Lyons' transactions and those of the late Eoghan McGillicuddy, a businessman from Co Kerry who also had dealings with Mr Hobbs. Mr Hobbs has said the complaint is vexatious.
In a statement to The Irish Times Mr Hobbs said: "You have asked what was in my mind at the time and while I cannot comment on individual clients I can say generally that, had I formed an impression that monies may have formed part of a tax amnesty, then the issue of tax liabilities would not arise."
He also said that he was a financial adviser not a tax adviser and that clients had responsibility for their tax affairs. "Irish citizens were perfectly entitled, under European directives, to invest in the wider choice of collective investments managed by international asset managers throughout Europe".
In his report to the High Court earlier this year the liquidator of the Taylor group, Patrick McSwiney, said Mr Taylor had made a complaint to the financial regulator about Mr Hobbs and certain clients of the Taylor group.
He said some of the files he had examined "suggest the avoidance of tax by individuals" and "I am of the view that I am required under . . . the Companies Act to report such offences."