Judge criticises ‘misleading’ Nama evidence

A High Court judge has criticised a Nama official for giving "misleading" evidence in a case involving the agency and Garrett Kelleher, the Chicago Spire promoter currently in dispute with Nama.

The comment came in a judgment delivered yesterday by Mr Justice Brian Cregan in a case involving a Mr Kelleher-linked company, Middleview, which at one stage had loans of up to €300 million with the former Anglo Irish Bank.

National Asset Loan Management (NALM) put Middleview into receivership in March 2014 but the next day Middleview was struck off the register of companies for failing to file returns between 2010 and 2013. This created administrative problems for the receivers.

Dispute

NALM successfully got it restored earlier this year but a dispute arose with Mr Kelleher over who would pay the bill for the four years’ missing returns. Mr Kelleher argued the striking off was entirely the fault of NALM, because it had control of Middleview’s income, while Nama official

Peter Malbasha

argued Mr Kelleher, as a director, was responsible.

The judge criticised Mr Malbasha’s evidence about the appointment of receivers as “positively misleading”. He ordered Nama to foot the bill for 2010 and 2011, and for the agency and Mr Kelleher to pay “50-50” for the following two years’ returns.