INVESTIGATORS into the affairs of missing investment broker Mr Tony Taylor have uncovered evidence of a substantial investment operation being run from his own home.
It now appears that Mr Taylor handled a "coterie" of around 12 clients from his home in Ballsbridge. However, the full extent of the operation has yet to be uncovered as investigators continue to sift through the cases of documents recovered from the house last week.
Officials have discovered evidence that Mr Taylor was moving money around from one client account to another.
"It now looks as if he was robbing Peter to pay Paul", one official said.
There is also evidence that details of these investors were not put through the Taylor Group business records.
Sources close to the investigation said Mr Taylor appeared to have been pretending to the clients that their money was in cash deposits.
"He was basically operating as a small bank", one source said. "He appeared to have been telling some clients that their money was in cash deposits earning returns between 4 and 5 per cent.
"At the same time, it looks as if he was working on building up investment income and may have been taking huge risks", he added.
There is industry speculation that Mr Taylor may have been speculating in foreign exchange and overseas markets but investigators have not found any evidence of this to date.
Investigators have now formed the view that Mr Taylor "left in a hurry". They also believe that Mr Taylor may not have left the country with millions siphoned away for his own use.
Investigations by the liquidator, Mr Patrick McSwiney, and authorised officers from the Department of Enterprise and Employment are continuing.
And officials are still wading through the boxes of papers taken from Mr Taylor's home. The full extent of the losses will not bed known for some time.
The gardai have been called in following a formal complaint from St Vincent de Paul late last week.
Official sources pointed out that it took three weeks from the time the affair broke before even one investor lodged a formal complaint.
Some of the other investors must be prepared to simply take the hit, he added.
The charity stands to lose around £185,000 which it had invested with Mr Taylor. Its formal complaint, allowed the gardai to start an investigation.
Meanwhile, Government officials have been undertaking widespread consultation with the brokers' associations and other industry representatives.
They have been examining whether a self regulatory system can underpin investor confidence. However, at this stage it appears that the most likely option is for the Central Bank to assume regulatory responsibility over the entire intermediary sector.
However, no decision has yet ban arrived at. The Central Bank is understood to be reluctant to assume responsibility for hundreds of small insurance brokers up and down the country.
