Harney widens scope of Ansbacher officer's inquiry

The authorised officer investigating the Ansbacher deposits has been appointed by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, to another Irish company. Ms Harney appointed Mr Gerard Ryan as an authorised officer to Kentford Securities Ltd on June 9th after receiving information from Mr Ryan concerning the company.

Ms Harney, in a written Dail reply, said the nature of the information given to her had to remain confidential for the present. She said Mr Ryan's appointment to the company "comprehended the circumstances" identified in section 19 of the Companies Act 1990. The section refers to "circumstances suggesting" that the affairs of the body may have been conducted with intent to defraud creditors, were conducted for a fraudulent purpose, or were conducted in a manner which was unfairly prejudicial to some part of its members.

Kentford Securities was incorporated in 1979 and dissolved in May 1995. It had its registered offices at 8 Inns Court, Dublin 8, the address of Management and Investment Services (MIS) Ltd, a company secretarial services and company nominee business run by Mr Sam Field-Corbett.

The McCracken tribunal heard that Mr Field-Corbett agreed to store files relating to the Ansbacher deposits in his offices following the death of Mr Des Traynor in 1994. He is connected to the family of the former Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, through a company called Larchfield Securities, whose directors include Mr Conor Haughey, Mr Ciaran Haughey, Mr Sean Haughey and Ms Eimear Mulhern.

Mr Field-Corbett is further connected to the Haughey family through Celtic Helicopters. One of his companies, MS Nominees Ltd, holds groups of shares in Celtic Helicopters on behalf of unidentified clients. A spokesman for MIS Ltd said: "We act on behalf of our clients and we have to respect confidentiality. We will co-operate with the authorities but we have to respect client confidentiality." Mr Field-Corbett was not available for comment.

The McCracken tribunal heard that, following the death of Mr Traynor, correspondence relating to a Cayman Islands company called Overseas Nominees Ltd was sent to Inns Court. Overseas Nominees is registered with the Cayman bank, Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd, and was controlled by the Cayman bankers, Mr John Collins and the late Mr John Furze. The Irish banker, Mr Padraig Collery, told the tribunal that, in 1994, when money was getting low in Mr Haughey's accounts in the Ansbacher deposits, it was replenished with funds from Overseas Nominees.

Mr Ryan was originally appointed to Mr Ciaran Haughey's company, Celtic Helicopters, to inquire into loans taken out by the company and, in one case, repaid from funds in the Ansbacher deposits. Following the production of an interim report by Mr Ryan to the Tanaiste, he was appointed to two Dublin banks, Guinness & Mahon and Irish Intercontinental Bank Ltd, and two Cayman companies, Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd and Hamilton Ross Ltd. Ms Harney said in her Dail reply that she had received no response from her appeal to Ansbacher (Cayman) to reconsider its stance of non-co-operation with Mr Ryan's enquiry.