The Moriarty tribunal is investigating whether documentation supplied to it was designed to conceal Mr Michael Lowry's involvement in a property transaction, writes Chris Dooley
The investigation concerns two letters supplied to the tribunal by a solicitor, Mr Christopher Vaughan, who lives in England and who acted for Mr Lowry in the purchase of two properties there in 1999.
A different version of each of the letters was given to the tribunal in March by an Irish Times journalist, Mr Colm Keena. These suggested the copies supplied by Mr Vaughan and other parties had been altered to hide "the true nature" of Mr Lowry's involvement, according to lawyers for the tribunal. The letters relate to the purchase by Mr Lowry, the former minister for transport, energy and communications, of a property, St Columba's Church, in Cheadle, England, in late 1999.
The tribunal has been investigating whether the businessman Mr Denis O'Brien was involved in the transaction. Evidence has been given that he guaranteed a loan raised to complete the purchase, but Mr O'Brien has denied this.
At its first public session for eight months yesterday, the tribunal dealt in detail with another aspect of the Cheadle transaction. It had previously heard from Mr O'Brien's accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan, that he took the property over from Mr Lowry in February 2000.
However, the two letters supplied by Mr Keena in March indicated that Mr Lowry's involvement continued until at least September 2000. The letters were written by Mr Vaughan to Mr Kevin Phelan, who had acted for Mr Lowry in the Cheadle transaction
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Jerry Healy SC, said the letters had the same dates - July 12th and September 5th, 2000 - and letterheads as copies supplied to the tribunal by Mr Vaughan, Mr Aidan Phelan and Mr Kevin Phelan, a property consultant. There were "marked differences", however, between the versions supplied by those parties and the copies provided by Mr Keena.
Mr Healy said the tribunal, in investigating the Cheadle transaction last year, had relied on the versions supplied by Mr Vaughan, Mr Aidan Phelan and Mr Kevin Phelan, which he would refer to as the "short form" letters.
In the July 12th letter, as originally supplied to the tribunal, Mr Vaughan said he had purchased the Cheadle property "as trustee for Aidan Phelan". In the copy supplied by Mr Keena, however, Mr Vaughan had written "as trustee for our client".
Mr Healy said the tribunal would, in the course of its sittings, endeavour to establish whether it would be appropriate to interpret the words "our client" as a reference to Mr Lowry.
It would also be investigating whether "the short form letter was intended to conceal the true identity of the parties to the transaction, namely Mr Michael Lowry, and to suggest that in fact Mr Aidan Phelan was the purchaser of the Cheadle property".
The September 5th letter, again from Mr Vaughan to Mr Kevin Phelan, referred to a prospective purchaser of the Cheadle property, Thistledown Estates. The short form contains no reference to Mr Lowry, but the long form, supplied by Mr Keena, refers twice to a "Michael".
Mr Vaughan, in the longer version, wrote: "What I would like to do is set up a timetable, bearing in mind that Michael wants to own the property in his own name for a month prior to the sale of Thistlewood Estates."
It concludes with a sentence that is not in the short form: "I have not written to Michael about this as I get concerned about correspondence going to him, but a copy has been sent to Aiden \ as he needs to keep the mortgage lender happy as to the loan that Michael took out." Giving evidence yesterday, solicitor to the tribunal, Mr John Davis, said the long form versions supplied by Colm Keena on March 21st were "totally new" to the tribunal. Contacted the same day, Mr Vaughan confirmed the long form letters were his. "He said 'oh yes . . . they have my name on them'." There followed a lengthy correspondence between the tribunal and Mr Vaughan, as well as Mr Kevin Phelan and solicitors for Mr Aidan Phelan and Mr Lowry. In a letter to the tribunal on April 30th last, Mr Lowry's solicitor, Mr Michael Kelly, said his client had "no knowledge whatsoever" of the two letters. Mr Vaughan, in a letter to the tribunal, said Mr Kevin Phelan had been dealing with him in connection with many different matters and inevitably some misunderstandings had occurred. Explaining the discrepancies between the short and long form letters, Mr (Kevin) Phelan "may well" have corrected "my understanding of events".
Mr Vaughan says he will not give evidence because he has a heart condition and, besides, his evidence would be of no value. Both Mr Lowry and Mr Aidan Phelan say they have encouraged Mr Vaughan to take the stand.