A Manchester businessman whose home and office were raided last week by the police, said yesterday he has never met the alleged IRA leader Thomas "Slab" Murphy but that his company had business dealings with Mr Murphy's brother.
Dermot Craven, head of the Craven property group, told a press conference that he had never carried out any business transactions for Mr Murphy. "There is no connection with Thomas Murphy."
However, Mr Craven said his group did have business dealings with Frank Murphy, a brother of Thomas Murphy, although he had not known of the connection with the alleged IRA leader until the raid by police and officers from the UK's Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) on Thursday last.
He said the dealings involve seven rented residential properties in the Manchester area with a total value of approximately £700,000 and on which there were a number of mortgages.
He said these properties had been purchased with the assistance of the Craven group and were now managed by the group on behalf of Sailor Property Ltd, a company owned by Frank Murphy.
"The last property Sailor purchased through Craven group was approximately two years ago," he said.
The press conference was attended by Mr Craven, solicitor Michael Kenyon, for the Craven group, and Richard Holliday, solicitor for a business partner of Mr Craven's, Brian Pepper, who has addresses in Manchester and Dundalk, Co Louth.
Mr Pepper's solicitor said his client could not attend the press conference as he had to attend to business matters concerning the Craven group.
Mr Pepper met Mr Craven and began having dealings with him in the late 1990s after Mr Craven placed an advertisement in the newspapers looking for property investors, Mr Craven said.
A few years later Mr Pepper introduced Frank Murphy to Mr Craven and Mr Murphy began conducting business with the Craven group.
Mr Pepper is company secretary to Sailor but does not have a beneficial interest in it, Mr Holliday said. The company has its registered offices at the head office of the Craven group. Most of the group's dealings with Frank Murphy have been through Mr Pepper.
"My business partner and I have been unjustly vilified by an investigation into which we are totally innocent," Mr Craven said.
"If it is the case that clients have purchased property through us, through the use of money that is derived from criminal activity, then we know nothing of this."
Mr Holliday said Mr Pepper had become involved in business with Frank Murphy after the two men had met at a property fair in Dundalk held by Mr Pepper.
While at the time Mr Pepper had known about Thomas "Slab" Murphy it was not until later that he had become aware that Frank Murphy was his brother.
Mr Holliday said Mr Pepper had once been at a Murphy family funeral at which Thomas Murphy had been present. He had not met him.
Mr Craven said Mr Pepper had never told him of the connection with Thomas Murphy. He said he had once seen Thomas Murphy's face on TV, in a programme about diesel smuggling, and had thought there was a resemblance with Frank Murphy. However, he had never mentioned the matter.
At the time of the raids on Thursday on two Craven group properties and on the homes of Mr Craven and Mr Pepper, the ARA said it was investigating assets worth £30 million in which equity of £9 million had been invested.
Asked about this, Mr Craven said: "You couldn't make this up. It's outrageous. Wild. Does Walt Disney know about the imagination these people have?"
Mr Kenyon said the raids by the ARA had done significant damage on the Craven group. There had been no large cash deposits made with the group, as reported in some newspapers.
The media was being manipulated by the ARA, which was desperate for positive publicity having not performed well to date, he said.
"They didn't care about the impact this would have on innocent people," he said.
