THE RUC has issued warrants for the arrest of the financier, Mr Finbarr Ross, whose international investment company collapsed 12 years ago with debts of over £7 million to many small investors.
The investors, most of whom were elderly from both sides of the border, had been attracted by the high interest rates offered by the company. Some lost their entire life savings.
Cork born Mr Ross is now the chief executive of a church in the Ozark mountains near Tulsa, in Oklahoma and has said he will resist attempts to have him sent back to Ireland.
The RUC has issued 41 warrants for his arrest but not for his extradition.
The Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Roy Beggs, welcomed the efforts and said he hoped they would eventually lead to Mr Ross's extradition.
Many of the investors had died since the company collapsed.
His company had been based in Dublin and registered in Gibraltar. Mr Beggs criticised the Government's refusal to investigate its collapse. Mr Ross is believed to have visited Cork and Dublin earlier this year.
He went to the United States in 1984, and since then RUC fraud squad officers have been investigating his business affairs, which left an estimated 1,200 investors out of pocket.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)