Garda assigns team to examine Mick Wallace Nama accusations

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The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation will carry out inquiries to test the veracity of allegations of corruption and bribery at the National Asset Management Agency before any suspects are interviewed or arrests made.

Independent TD Mick Wallace made allegations about Nama under parliamentary privilege in the Dáil last week, saying a construction company was asked by a Nama official to make two payments of €15,000 each “in a bag” to exit the agency.

“I was asked to go and meet two superintendents last Thursday. I met them at 8am on Friday morning,” Mr Wallace said yesterday.

Mr Wallace said that he spoke to the superintendents for an hour and 20 minutes.

“We had a discussion about different dimensions of what I know in relation to the construction firm,” he said. “It was really just around what information I had in relation to that, so I gave it to them.

“They were pretty sharp individuals, so hopefully they have the wherewithal to sort it. I gave them the names and they’ve got to now investigate.”

The Wexford TD said he did not give the gardaí any documentation.

“I didn’t have any to give them. Just gave them any relevant information I had,” he said.

Last week, Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh asked the Garda Commissioner to investigate the allegations made by Mr Wallace.

Mr McDonagh wrote to Ms Noreen O’Sullivan requesting that the Garda investigate Mr Wallace’s claims. He said if the claims went untested it would “cast a shadow over all Nama officers”.

Lines of inquiry

An investigation team has been established in the fraud bureau and has been tasked with pursuing lines of inquiry revealed in the information Mr Wallace gave last Friday.

This will include an initial check into the background details, including whether a property developer whose name was given by Mr Wallace to the Garda was in Nama and has since exited, and if that chain of events corresponds with the claims in Mr Wallace’s statement.

The Garda team will also seek to establish whether any Nama official named by Mr Wallace was assigned to the developer within the agency.

If the developer did exit Nama, the Garda team will seek to establish the circumstances.

The findings of those initial inquiries will then be reviewed with Mr Wallace’s statement and those people named by Mr Wallace, or others who emerge as persons of interest, may be interviewed by the Garda.

It is likely such interviews would be conducted by arrangement with the Garda team, meaning any interviewee would agree to meet detectives to give a statement and answer questions without the need for gardaí to arrest them.

However, if the investigating team believed documents or other evidence, including data on computers or telephones, needed to be gathered quickly because they were at risk of being concealed or destroyed, unannounced raids and searches could be conducted and no- warning arrests executed.

Typically, in cases of alleged corruption on the part of those suspected of white collar crime, a large volume of preliminary work must be done before an arrest.

This is conducted in order to avoid litigation for wrongful arrest if the claims are found to be untrue or if there was insufficient evidence to ground a prosecution.