No solicitors were engaged for the purchase of a holiday home in Spain by Mr Denis O'Brien from his friend and former Fine Gael fund-raiser, Mr David Austin, in 1996, the tribunal heard.
It also emerged at the tribunal yesterday that some documents concerning the sale were mislaid and that others were issued only in May of this year.
The tribunal wrote to Mr O'Brien's solicitors on May 17th last seeking copies of all documents in relation to the sale, including the file of the solicitor who acted on Mr O'Brien's behalf in connection with the purchase. The previous day Mr O'Brien's solicitor had disclosed to the tribunal that he had bought the house.
On May 28th, 2001, Mr O'Brien's legal advisers, William Fry Solicitors, informed the tribunal that the property in Marbella was owned by a company called Tokey Investments Ltd, which was registered in Gibraltar. "Tokey has 100 issued shares, 99 of which are held by Finsbury Holdings Ltd. The other share is held by Finsbury Nominees Ltd," the letter said.
"We are also instructed that the sale was effected by transferring the beneficial interest in the shares held by the Finsbury companies to an Isle of Man trust called Walbrook Trustees (IOM) Ltd which holds the shares for the benefit of Denis O'Brien. No solicitors were retained by either side, the sale being effected by a simple transfer of the beneficial ownership of shares," it added.
The letter said Mr O'Brien purchased the holiday home, with the intention of making it available to his parents who frequently holidayed in Spain.
The price of the property was initially agreed at £165,000 but was reduced to £150,000 on the condition that Mr Austin would be able to hold on to it for the Ryder Cup which was taking place in Spain the following year.
The correspondence said the money for the property was paid to Mr Austin in two instalments of £50,000 and £100,000 in July 1996. The money was paid out of an Isle of Man account, into which Mr O'Brien had received repayment of a directors' loan from RINV (Radio Investments Ltd), a subsidiary within the Communicorp Radio Group, owned by him.
Mr O'Brien's accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan, was instructed to open the account with the AIB in the Isle of Man for the purpose of making the payment to Mr Austin.
Mr O'Brien "did not retain any payment instructions or other records in relation to these payments".
The tribunal wrote again to Mr O'Brien's solicitors on May 29th asking why Walbrook only executed declarations of trust in favour of Mr O'Brien in relation to the Spanish property on May 15th this year.
The reply said Mr Austin was looking after the transfer of ownership in 1996 and initially arranged for declarations of trust to be executed by the Finsbury companies in favour of Walbrook. "Completion of the transfer was subsequently delayed because documentation was misplaced by Mr Austin," it said.
Explaining why the Walbrook declarations of trust were dated May 2001, the solicitors said: "We understand that the declarations of trust are dated May 2001 because it was at that time that Walbrook established, in response to queries from our client [Mr O'Brien], that they couldn't find executed declarations of trust from the relevant time.
"However, we understand that they were satisfied from their file that Denis O'Brien is the beneficial owner and therefore executed the declarations."
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said the tribunal's investigations were continuing and it had on Monday sought further documentation from Mr O'Brien.