Garda fraud squad leads inquiry into Wallace Nama claims

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, which investigates serious allegations of white collar crime, is carrying out the inquiry in Independent TD Mick Wallace's claims, The Irish Times understands.

An investigation team has been established and will be tasked with pursuing lines of inquiry revealed in the information Mr Wallace gave to gardaí 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 gardaí, was in Nama and has since exited and if that chain of events corresponds with the claims in Mr Wallace’s statement.

In the Dáil last week Mr Wallace claimed a construction firm looking to exit Nama was asked for “cash in a bag by an agency official.

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

And if the developer exited Nama, the circumstances of that development will seek to be established by the Garda team.

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.