Neither Mr Denis O'Brien nor his accountant told an Esat Telecom internal investigation in 1997 that an offshore account was held by him or on his behalf out of which £150,000 was paid to a Fine Gael fund-raiser, the tribunal heard.
Mr O'Brien said yesterday details of the Isle of Man account were not disclosed, possibly because it was opened and closed in a matter of days. It was only open for a week to 10 days, he said.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said he didn't care if the account was only open for 10 minutes. It was a serious matter, he said, which had only been disclosed in recent days to the tribunal.
Mr O'Brien said the £150,000 paid to Mr Austin was payment for a townhouse in Spain. The money was transferred to Mr Austin in two installments and Mr Austin later paid the money to an Isle of Man account belonging to the former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry.
In 1997 lawyers for Esat Telecom began investigating an alleged payment of £100,000 by Mr O'Brien to Mr Lowry in advance of the company being launched on the Nasdaq. Mr Owen O'Connell, solicitor for the company, was making inquires about all of Mr O'Brien's accounts on behalf of the board of the company to see if there had been any drawings of £100,000 from any of Mr O'Brien's accounts which would substantiate the allegation.
Mr O'Connell was told Woodchester Bank was the only place to look, counsel said, and he wanted Mr O'Brien to explain why. Mr O'Brien said the investigation team was not told of the Isle of Man account because "it may have been that the account was closed at that time".
He said nobody told the directors of Esat Telecom or Esat Digifone of the account's existence either.
Mr O'Brien said the account was opened for the repayment of a director's loan he had made available in July 1996. He did not know if the account was in his name or in the name of his accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan. He believed Mr Phelan opened the account.
Asked why the account was opened in the Isle of Man, he said Mr Austin wanted the money for the house from an offshore account because he was living offshore.
Mr O'Brien said he wrote to the tribunal informing it of the payment to Mr Austin after a media report. However, he admitted only telling the tribunal in the last few days that the house was paid for from an offshore account in the Isle of Man.
Asked why, he replied he didn't know of it himself until he was asked to investigate by the tribunal.
Counsel asked how Mr O'Brien couldn't know the payments were made from the Isle of Man account until a few days ago. "I was running a public company. I could not tell you precisely all the banking arrangements that I had. I was working 14 hours a day . . . I knew I'd bought the house, but where precisely the money came from I didn't know," Mr O'Brien replied.
"I'm sure you don't know which account your credit card bill is paid out of," he added.