A former trader with Goodbody Stockbrokers is taking legal action against his former employer arising out of a reference he received from Goodbody's managing director, Mr Roy Barrett.
Mr Bruce Ashmore yesterday told the Fyffes/DCC insider-dealing case in the High Court that he needed the reference for the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA) in connection with a hedge fund he and two colleagues were setting up in 2001.
Mr Ashmore told the court he left Goodbody in December 2001, when he and two others, Mr Gerry O'Reilly and Mr Paddy Shanahan, were going to set up the fund. He had been 14 years with the firm.
Mr Ashmore said he needed authorisation from IFSRA and got a reference from Mr Barrett. However, Mr Ashmore took issue with the reference because Mr Barrett "tried to blame some compliance issues on me". Mr Ashmore said he is contesting the matter "very vigorously".
Asked afterwards about the issue, Mr Ashmore said he could not comment because the matter was the subject of legal proceedings.
Mr Ashmore was called to give evidence because he was involved in the three share deals that are at the heart of the ongoing insider-dealing case.
He said he was acting on instructions he received from Mr Barrett when he became involved in the first deal, which took place on February 3rd, 2000.
The first deal was handled by Goodbody and Davy. A document shown to the court recorded the deal as having involved shares worth €57 million and the two stockbrocking firms each earning €71,582 in commission.
Mr Ashmore told Mr Brian Murray SC, for Fyffes, that he was told by Mr Barrett to line up the buyers for the shares. He said Mr Barrett had been in contact with Mr Jim Flavin, chief executive of DCC.
A key issue in the case is whether Mr Flavin and DCC dealt in the shares or whether the deal was done by a Dutch subsidiary of DCC, Lotus Green, as claimed by the defendants.
Mr Ashmore said the next two deals in the shares were handled by Goodbody acting alone. In each case, he was told by Mr Barrett to contact Mr Tom Diepenhorst, a director of Lotus Green in Holland, and bid for a specific number of shares at a specific price.
Mr Ashmore said it was obvious Mr Diepenhorst was waiting for his calls. "Here's some Irish person bidding him for eight million shares at €3.60. He's obviously expecting it."
The court heard that, on Wednesday, Fyffes told the defendants that it would not be calling Mr Barrett as had been intended.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)