Former Nama official charged over property deals

A former official with the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has had criminal charges brought against him in relation to property dealings he allegedly influenced while working with the agency.

The Irish Times understands the man was previously questioned by gardaí about suspect property dealings and that he met with detectives by appointment at a Dublin Garda station yesterday as part of the latest stage in the investigation which has been ongoing for two years.

He was charged and has since been released on bail. The man, who lives in Dublin and has moved on from his position in Nama, will appear in court at a later date.

The criminal investigation began after Nama made a complaint to the gardaí about the accessing and alleged distribution of commercially sensitive information relating to property the agency had on its books and was preparing for sale.

It is alleged the man accessed information about properties that were being sold for sums much lower that what they had been worth and that he passed that information to a third party.

The activities are alleged to have occurred over a long period of time and gardaí believe at least some of the information was used to purchase property. The agency learned of the sale and brought auditors to investigate the details of the transaction and to establish exactly what information had been accessed and to whom it had been passed. At the conclusion of that probe Nama reported the matter for investigation to the Garda.

The sale that the suspect alleged influenced saw the purchase of property from a businessman who was a debtor of Nama’s at the time of the transaction, though he had no knowledge of the alleged involvement by the former official in the sale. The third party the ex-Nama employee supplied information to has denied wrongdoing.