A High Court application to commit a Dublin businessman to prison for contempt of court has been adjourned until next week.
Mr Thomas O'Keeffe, of The Sweepstakes, Ballsbridge, Dublin, has already served a two-week prison term for having failed to comply with court directions to provide information about large sums of money he had been given to invest.
Mr O'Keeffe's case earlier made headline news when the High Court was told on a day he was due to appear that he had died the previous night.
Within hours of the shock news the court was told Mr O'Keeffe's death had been greatly exaggerated and that he had merely sought admission to a Dublin hospital for treatment.
On May 2nd Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns jailed Mr O'Keeffe for a fortnight for having failed to comply with earlier court orders directing him to provide information about $5 million which a US businessman, Mr John O'Neill, had given him to invest.
He had also been ordered to give information about €750,000 given to him on behalf of other investors, including the professional golfer Mr Des Smyth.
Other court orders related to the provision of information about his assets and bank accounts.
Mr John Trainor SC, for Mr O'Neill, and Mr Charles Meenan SC, for the other investors, yesterday disputed an assertion by Mr O'Keeffe that he had given all the information in his possession and had complied with the orders.
Mr O'Keeffe has been restrained by the High Court from leaving the jurisdiction or from reducing his assets.
Mr Justice Murphy was told yesterday that Mr O'Keeffe had attempted to reduce his assets and had operated bank accounts in defiance of existing court orders.
In evidence yesterday Mr O'Keeffe denied these allegations.
He said he had furnished lawyers for Mr O'Neill and the other investors with 80 documents on his affairs, which were all he had in his possession.
Provision of some documents had been delayed because they had to be traced and copied.
Mr Trainor told the court yesterday much of the documentation provided by Mr O'Keeffe had led to further considerable concern about his activities.
Mr O'Keeffe told the court that during his two weeks in prison he had been locked up in a four-person cell with three hardened criminals, who smoked and played music all night and that he had to live on cereals.
It had taken him several days to recover his health after he was released.