Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, put the matter very bluntly to Mr Denis O'Brien's accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan, yesterday.
Not only was Mr O'Brien giving financial support to Mr Michael Lowry from July 1996 until December 1999, but when the assistance was discovered some or all of the parties colluded in putting false paperwork in place to support an untrue story.
It is a very serious accusation, including as it does an injudicious decision to give financial help to a minister who was in government when the first alleged payment was made; and the subsequent decision to create false documents.
Mr Lowry, in July 1996, was minister for transport, energy and communications and was making decisions affecting Esat Telecom, Mr O'Brien's principal business venture at the time.
In May 1996 Mr Lowry had overseen the official awarding of a mobile telephone licence to Esat Digifone, in which Esat Telecom held a 40 per cent stake.
Mr Phelan said the suggestion made by Mr Coughlan was incorrect.
In brief, the scenario indicated by Mr Coughlan was that in July 1996 Mr O'Brien sent £150,000 to the late Mr David Austin, for onward conveyance to Mr Lowry: that this occurred but the money was returned after Mr Lowry's fall from grace and the establishment of the McCracken tribunal.
Two years later Mr Phelan organised a British property deal in Mansfield using £300,000 sterling from a London account belonging to Mr O'Brien; and a few months later organised funding for a second property deal, using £420,000 sterling borrowed from Woodchester Bank, telling one of the bank's senior executives that the loan was "a Denis O'Brien transaction".
Mr Coughlan said: "Your involvement with Mr Lowry was to assist Mr Lowry because money had got stuck with the intermediary previously. Doesn't that look like the situation?"
The reference to an intermediary was a reference to Mr Austin. Mr O'Brien has said he gave £150,000 to Mr Austin because he was purchasing a house in Spain from him.
Mr Phelan's reply to Mr Coughlan was: "It doesn't look like that at all to me. Mr Austin was a friend of Denis O'Brien's. Are you talking about the house purchase?"
Mr Phelan said he was "very happy that Mr O'Brien bought a house from David Austin, and the paperwork was not processed in a timely fashion".
Mr Coughlan asked his question again: "What I am saying to you is doesn't it look like that money got stuck with the intermediary and something had to be done and paperwork was sorted out subsequently, but that Mr Lowry continued to need assistance and that is why you got involved with him in relation to these transactions?"
Mr Phelan responded: "No, it doesn't look like that to me. It doesn't at all."
Mr O'Brien has already given evidence that he bought the house in Spain for his parents, but subsequently built a house in Portugal, and his parents holidayed there and had never used the Spanish house. There are no legal documents available, created in 1996 documenting the transfer of the house.
The documentation and testimony available in relation to the British property deals is confusing. Mr Phelan has said Mr O'Brien knew nothing of the British deals. He has denied using Mr O'Brien's name when seeking the £420,000 sterling loan from GE Capital Woodchester.
From the evidence heard to date, it seems Mr Lowry made no money out of the British property deals. He still has a 10 per cent stake in the first property, which remains unsold.
Yesterday Mr Coughlan asked some questions about $295,000 transferred to New York to buy Esat Telecom shares in Mr Austin's name in September 1998. Mr Austin died in November 1998. The shares bought with the $295,000 were transferred to another account after Mr Austin's death. Why the questions were asked is not clear.