The Criminal Assets Bureau has secured a High Court order freezing lands at Carrickmines, Dublin, owned by Jackson Way Properties Ltd, after claiming a €53 million increase in the value of some of the property stemmed from corrupt conduct. That conduct had led to "corrupt enrichment" of JWP under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the bureau told the court.
Bureau chief Det Chief Supt Felix McKenna said in an affidavit the €53 million increase in the value of certain lands - up from some €7 million in 1997 - followed a land-rezoning decision procured by "corrupt conduct" and "corrupt payments to county councillors".
The freezing order granted yesterday by the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, prevents Jackson Way Properties Ltd (JWP) from disposing of or otherwise dealing with some 43 hectares (107 acres) of land at Carrickmines, south Dublin.
Chief Supt McKenna said 17 acres of Jackson Way lands were rezoned from agricultural to industrial at a special council meeting of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on December 16th, 1997. That led to the lands increasing in value by €53 million by last December.
The increase "directly results from the corrupt conduct in procuring the rezoning decision" and represented part of JWP's "corrupt enrichment" within the meaning of that phrase in section 16B of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996, he said. The beneficial owners of JWP, according to Chief Supt McKenna, are businessman/developer James Kennedy, who has been involved in running an amusement arcade at Westmoreland Street, and a solicitor, John Caldwell.
The lands in December 2005 were worth €61 million, an increase of €53.7 million in the value over their agricultural use value in 1997, he said.
The bureau, the court was told, had investigated the rezoning of the 17.635 acres of Jackson Way lands in Carrickmines, secured by a 13-11 vote of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council on December 16th, 1997. Chief Supt McKenna said he believed the rezoning decision was procured by corrupt payment to county councillors. "These corrupt payments were made by Mr Frank Dunlop in furtherance of an agreement with James Kennedy whereby Mr Dunlop would receive the commercial value of one rezoned acre of the Carrickmines lands if he successfully arranged the rezoning of the property," Chief Supt McKenna said.
He said Mr Dunlop made a series of cash payments which, Chief Supt McKenna believed were bribes, to a number of county councillors in order to secure the passing of the rezoning vote.
He believed JWP had "derived specified pecuniary or other advantage or benefit as a result of or in connection with corrupt conduct". He based this on information he had gathered in investigations, personal interviews with Mr Dunlop and various county councillors.
"Having considered all the background evidence, the history of acquisition of the property, the entirety of Mr Dunlop's account of events, the pattern and nature of the payments made to county councillors, Mr Dunlop's understanding of the process of political payments and having interviewed the relevant councillors personally, it is my belief that the payments identified by Mr Dunlop could only have been made as corrupt payments and understood as such by the recipients."
He had a real concern that without the freezing order, the property may be dissipated "thereby rendering nugatory any attempt to realise any corrupt enrichment order which the court might make in this action".
Efforts had been made by the beneficial owners of JWP to obscure the real ownership of the company. One of those persons he believed to be a major beneficial owner was James Kennedy, who lives in Gibraltar, and John Caldwell, who lives in the Isle of Man.
As the land was registered to JWP, there was little or no bar to an immediate private sale or some other form of charge on the property or alternatively the raising of an equitable mortgage followed by the transfer of funds outside the jurisdiction by the company.
Chief Supt McKenna said he had a real concern that institution of these proceedings may precipitate an attempt to liquidate the assets and put them beyond the jurisdiction of the court.
An expert valuer said the 107 acres were worth €125,000 an acre in late December 1997/early 1998. The 17.635 acres of rezoned land were worth €500,000 an acre immediately after the rezoning decision. In December 2005, the value of the same 17.635 acres of rezoned land was estimated at €3.5 million an acre, totalling €61 million. The total value of the rezoned lands, if they had remained zoned agricultural, would be in the region of €7.9 million.
Referring to the motorway lands, which were the subject of a compulsory purchase order in October 1998 by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Chief Supt McKenna said JWP and the council failed to agree on compensation to be paid for the CPO.
The dispute went to arbitration and it was determined in November 2003 that the compensation appropriate was in the region of €12.8 million, of which €9.6 million was for the land taken in the compulsory purchase.
Chief Supt McKenna said it was the bureau's case that €4.2 million of that award represented the present value of this part of JWP's "corrupt enrichment". According to Cab, the Carrickmines lands were amassed by James Kennedy and John Caldwell up to 1989. A company called Paisley Park Investments Ltd was registered as full owners in December 1992 and the land was transferred to JWP in 1993.
Chief Supt McKenna said he believed that Paisley Park Investments Ltd was owned substantially by Mr Caldwell and Mr Kennedy. He said JWP was an English-registered company with its registered office in Birmingham. Mr Caldwell had said he and Mr Kennedy were in fact the real owners of JWP, he added.