A company owned by Mr Liam Lawlor TD which never traded had £900,000 transferred into its accounts, the tribunal has heard.
While over £100,000 was transferred from a savings account and over £300,000 was transferred into one account by Goodman International, Mr Lawlor was unable to account for the rest of the money.
Advanced Proteins was set up to manufacture proteins in 1984, with both Mr Lawlor and his wife as directors. While Mr Lawlor submitted three pages of documentation to the tribunal regarding the business, the page numbers indicated at least 60 documents were missing, Mr John Gallagher SC, for the tribunal, said.
Between 1986 and 1991 over £535,000 was lodged into one account of Advanced Proteins. Mr Lawlor was unable to tell the tribunal what the lodgments were for, except to say the money was used to fund an ongoing feasibility study to manufacture proteins. Mr Gallagher asked Mr Lawlor if he had any idea where a lodgment of £15,000 came from. "Not a clue. If I had I would have given it to you, Mr Chairman," Mr Lawlor replied.
He said he had not tried to find an explanation for the lodgments because he did not see the affairs of Advanced Proteins as the business of the tribunal.
Despite the amount deposited, the account was overdrawn at one stage by over £23,000. "There was a significant number of transactions paid out by the company. This was a non-trading company," Mr Gallagher said.
A transfer of £250,000 was made into a savings account of Advanced Proteins on September 30th, 1987, and a transfer of £65,000 was made on October 22nd, 1987. Mr Lawlor said both lodgments were made by Goodman International to fund the feasibility study. Mr Lawlor said he "assumed" another lodgment of £50,000 into the account in February 1988 was from Goodman International.
Mr Gallagher said the details also showed over £203,000 was transferred out of the account in December 1987. Mr Lawlor said the money was returned to Goodman International as it was decided not to purchase equipment from Argentina for the project.
"I had returned from Argentina as I recall. I was not satisfied with the technology we were looking at purchasing. The funding wasn't required in the company at that juncture and on the instructions of Goodman International the money was transferred," Mr Lawlor said.
Mr Gallagher asked Mr Lawlor why a bank account of Demographic Strategic Consultants was not disclosed to the tribunal in either of his affidavits. "It was a genuine omission by me if it's not there," Mr Lawlor replied. Mr Gallagher said 10 bank accounts had been discovered in addition to those disclosed by Mr Lawlor.