Money Markets International, an associate company of MMI Stockbrokers, has said that it has received confirmation from the Central Bank that it is authorised to continue operating as a wholesale money brokers.
But a spokesman for the Central Bank said it was continuing to monitor the situation.
The meeting came after the High Court granted injunctions on Thursday, stopping two directors of MMI Stockbrokers from reducing their assets below a set amount because of allegations by the stockbroker's liquidator, Mr Tom Kavanagh, that some £1.9 million in funds was misappropriated.
The two directors of Money Markets International, Mr John Curran and Mr Paul Boucher, together with the financial controller, Mr Peter O'Byrne, met Central Bank officials yesterday and were cleared to continue trading. The Baggot Street-based company is licensed by the Central Bank to engage in currency trading and will keep its position on the register of Financial Registered and Approved Intermediaries, according to a company spokesman.
A Central Bank spokesman said it was "obviously concerned" about what had generally come out in court and the implications in relation to Money Markets International were being assessed.
The bank spokesman said yesterday that the Central Bank was "closely monitoring" the operations of Money Markets International as a result of what the court was told.
The two directors of Money Markets International, Mr Curran and Mr Boucher, and Mr O'Byrne were all directors of MMI Stockbrokers, now in liquidation. In this capacity, Mr Curran, of Kingsley Mews, Raglan Road, Dublin, had an injunction imposed by the High Court on Thursday preventing him reducing the size of his assets below £106,842.
A spokesman for Mr Curran said yesterday that he would vigorously contest the claims being made by Mr Kavanagh, and that he wanted the matter to be dealt with at the earliest possible opportunity. The spokesman added that the statement equally applied to Mr Boucher and Mr O'Byrne.
Mr Oisin Fanning, of Forenaughts House, Johnstown, Naas, Co Kildare, former managing director of MMI Stockbrokers, who also had an asset-freezing injunction imposed on him this week, is a former director of Money Markets International. He was unavailable for comment last night. Mr Kavanagh told the court that he believed he could connect Mr Fanning to more than £900,000 in misappropriated funds.
The Central Bank has a range of measures which it can apply to censure a company it has licensed in the event of any wrongdoing. It can limit the trading a company engages in, or restrict the movement of funds to and from accounts.
It has the ultimate sanction of directing a company to cease trading if it finds evidence of wrongdoing.
It can also demand that individuals on a board of management be removed and it has the power, without going to the High Court, of freezing a company's assets. Meanwhile, summonses are to be issued by the liquidator against the seven directors of MMI Stockbrokers seeking damages for fraudulent conversion and breach of fiduciary duty.
One of the MMI Stockbrokers, directors Mr Tim Murphy, stated yesterday he had twice sent written instructions to the liquidator to dispose of stock so that his personal debt of £15,420 would be discharged. In June and September, he had given Mr Kavanagh written instructions, and signed stock transfer forms, to sell sufficient stock to clear the amount, he said in a statement. The stocks held in this account with the liquidator are worth over £50,000, he stated.
"Concerning allegations about amounts owed by what are described as `connected parties', I wish to state that total stocks held in CREST and in MMI nominees for myself and connected parties are in excess of £150,000. Again, instructions have been given to the liquidator to dispose of some of this stock."
Mr Murphy added that the debts arose primarily because he froze all trading on personal and connected party accounts "lest any such trading might be construed as insider trading", from April, 1998, to January, 1999, when he departed from the company.
