Ryan investigates offshore trust company

The civil servant whose confidential report on Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd led to the appointment of three High Court inspectors to investigate the company is continuing his investigations into College Trustees, an offshore trust company which managed funds for wealthy Irish people.

Mr Gerard Ryan's report is expected to be complete before the end of the year.

Now owned by Credit Suisse Trust, College Trustees is a former subsidiary of Guinness and Mahon bank, Dublin. The Guernsey-based company was linked to the late Des Traynor, who set up and managed the Ansbacher system.

College Trustees also held the majority shareholding in Tripleplan, a British company through which the supermarket owner Mr Ben Dunne paid a £282,500 sterling cheque into a Guinness & Mahon account in the name of Mr Charles Haughey.

College Trustees manages non-discretionary trusts, which means that the ultimate beneficiaries would have no say over how the funds were invested.

Yesterday, the chief executive of holding firm James Crean, Mr Ray McLaughlin, said he had never placed any monies with College Trustees.

In a statement responding to a Sunday Independent report that he was among a group of over 50 senior political and business figures cited by Mr Ryan as holding money with the company, he said: "If my name is on any list of depositors with College Trustees, it can only be a mistake." Mr McLaughlin said his brother Felim was not a client of College Trustees.

Two other prominent figures - former Attorney General Mr Peter Sutherland and Fine Gael MEP Ms Mary Banotti - reported to have been cited in Mr Ryan's letter to College Trustees, were not available for comment yesterday.

Ms Banotti was quoted by the Sunday Independent as saying she had never heard of College Trustees and never received communications from it. A spokesperson for Mr Sutherland was reported to have said that the former AIB chairman had "no account with College Trustees nor any beneficial interest in College Trustees".

As well as investigating an Ansbacher associate company, Hamilton Ross, Mr Ryan is examining four Irish companies. They are Celtic Helicopters, Guinness & Mahon bank, Irish Intercontinental Bank and Kentford Securities.