Mr James Gogarty was selling land for "other people" while he was concluding a deal on the Murphy lands with Mr Michael Bailey, the tribunal heard.
Mr Bailey said that during the negotiations for the Murphy lands Mr Gogarty almost got him to buy a piece of land in Clontarf, Co Dublin, belonging to a man he may have been in business with, Mr Jack Gill.
He said this land was later bought by "other builders", and Mr Gill died soon after.
Mr Bailey said; "I honestly don't know" when asked on what date he was offered the land at Clontarf. He said there had been "a title problem with it".
Questioning Mr Bailey on the £150,000 finder's fee he agreed to pay Mr Gogarty, counsel for the tribunal, Mr Desmond O'Neill, said it was a most unusual deal, as Mr Bailey agreed to pay the money without Mr Gogarty "putting a pen to paper".
Mr Gogarty was getting the finder's fee for putting the Murphy land deal together, but Mr O'Neill said that when Mr Bailey agreed to pay the money a contract had not been signed.
He also asked Mr Bailey why he did not ask for a receipt for the money. Mr Bailey said he trusted Mr Gogarty. "I believed if the deal didn't go ahead he would return the money to me," he added.
"Did you understand that this was to include any element of VAT or other charges that might be due for services rendered?" Mr O'Neill asked. "No, that wasn't discussed," Mr Bailey said. He had not discussed with Mr Gogarty whether or not he was registered as an auctioneer.
Mr Bailey said the original agreement with Mr Gogarty was to pay him £150,000 in cash, but it transpired that £50,000 was paid in cash and the rest was made up of two post-dated cheques for £50,000 each.
Mr Bailey explained that these cheques were a form of security for later cash payments. In other words, Mr Gogarty had the cheques as a guarantee that £100,000 cash would be paid to him subsequently or else he could present the cheques.