A “SPECULATIVE property investment” in Co Sligo allegedly promoted by an accountant and involving former European commissioner Ray MacSharry and others is at the centre of a Commercial Court action which opened yesterday.
Brothers Arthur, Kieran and John Grady and their company claim they suffered losses of more than €2.4 million because of allegedly fraudulent claims by accountant Kenneth McMoreland and quantity surveyor Jack (Jackie) McMahon concerning the 2006 purchase of the Saehan site by Foresthaze Developments Ltd, a company of which Mr MacSharry was chairman.
Their counsel Michael Cush SC said a sale and sub-sale arrangement in which the site was purchased in April 2006 in trust for Mr McMoreland and Mr McMahon for €9.85 million, then purchased six months later by Foresthaze for €11.5 million, was withheld from the Gradys. If they knew of that, they would not have invested, he said.
Mr McMoreland last year secured orders joining Ray MacSharry snr, Pearse Road, Sligo; Ray MacSharry jnr, Johnstown, Naas, Co Kildare; Marc MacSharry, Pearse Road, Sligo; Gerard Healy, Kevinsfort Ltd, Castle Street, Sligo; Damien Torsney, Ballsbridge, Dublin, and Edward and Jacqueline Donaghy, Drumcliffe, Co Sligo – as third parties to the case.
Mr Justice Seán Ryan has begun hearing the Gradys’ action against Mr McMoreland, Mailcoach Road, Sligo, an accountant and tax specialist formerly of Gilroy Gannon accountants; others practising as Gilroy Gannon accountants, Stephen Street, Sligo; Jackie McMahon, Creggconell, Rosses Point, Co Sligo, and Foresthaze, Millbrook, Riverside, Sligo.
The Gradys are claiming exemplary damages against both men, plus an indemnity against any claims made under guarantees for €1 million in favour of Foresthaze provided by them to AIB.
