Details received just under two weeks ago on the imminent withdrawal of funds from an Isle of Man bank and corruption claims dating from 1989 led to the Garda decision to arrest the former Dublin assistant city and county manager.
Mr George Redmond is expected to face further questioning by gardai from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) about alleged tax offences. Bureau detectives will continue investigations this week to determine how much money Mr Redmond held in the Republic and the Isle of Man.
CAB officers, under the direction of the bureau head, Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy, are liaising closely with the Isle of Man Fraud Squad to uncover details of Mr Redmond's banking activities there.
Orders have been issued to banks and financial institutions in Dublin for disclosure of cash held by the former assistant city and county manager in as many as 20 accounts. The final figure for his cash assets is likely to be known this week.
Mr Redmond was arrested at Dublin Airport 10 days ago with around £200,000 in cash, made up of £92,000 sterling and £100,000, which he had withdrawn from a Manx bank.
Garda sources strongly rejected newspaper allegations yesterday that he may have been attempting to bring this money out of the Republic and was unable to bank it in the Isle of Man because of banking restrictions.
The CAB is understood to be satisfied that the cash, in mixed denomination sterling and Irish notes, was withdrawn by Mr Redmond from an account he had had with a local bank in Douglas for several years.
A CAB detective followed Mr Redmond to the Isle of Man and met members of the local Fraud Squad, who are continuing to assist the bureau. The bank in question has received a request for assistance in disclosure of details of Mr Redmond's account, or accounts, under established international co-operation procedures.
Both the CAB and the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation have previously had successful co-operation from Manx authorities.
The CAB has also sent disclosure orders to banks and financial institutions in Dublin city centre and the north of the city in respect of at least 20 accounts held by Mr Redmond. The total amount held in these accounts is expected to emerge later this week, but it was already being estimated by sources close to the investigation at the end of last week that the amount held in the Dublin accounts could be at least £500,000.
Gardai also know Mr Redmond cashed stocks and shares he had held to the value of £95,000 last summer and was carrying bankers' drafts to this amount when he was arrested at Dublin Airport last Friday week. The total amount of cash assets held by Mr Redmond is currently estimated, therefore, at somewhere in the region of £800,000.
Gardai uncovered the details of the other bank accounts in Dublin when they raided his house in Clonsilla after his arrest. There were said to be voluminous records of cash accounts in the house.
The exact reason Mr Redmond was carrying the drafts from his stockbrokers is unclear, but it is believed he may have been uncertain about what to do with them.
Mr Redmond was the subject of a previous investigation, led by Chief Supt Brendan Burns (now retired) in 1989, into allegations of planning corruption in Co Dublin. This investigation followed allegations of bribery and corruption but led to no action against Mr Redmond.
Files of this investigation have been taken over by the CAB and are being examined in connection with the investigation into Mr Redmond's financial affairs.
The seizure of his cash and bank drafts is under the tax-evasion provisions established in the 1994 Criminal Justice legislation which set up the bureau and provided it with powers to seize assets where it is suspected tax is being evaded.
Senior Garda sources insist there is no connection between the bureau's investigations and the Flood tribunal on alleged planning corruption in north Dublin.