Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said a quote published in his name promoting a planned crypto technology resort in Timor-Leste was manufactured and he knew nothing about the proposed development.
Ahern was reacting to a joint Guardian and Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) report that revealed three people connected with the proposed development have been indicted by the US department of justice for allegedly operating Cambodian forced-labour compounds.
The US government seized $15 billion (€13 billion) worth of Bitcoin from Prince Group founder and chairman Chen Zhi for allegedly forcing people to work in compounds to carry out cryptocurrency frauds that stole billions from victims worldwide.
The investigation revealed that Chen and two others were individually involved with a plan by AB Chain, a blockchain network company, to develop the beachside resort, from which they said between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of profits would go to an Irish charity chaired by Ahern.
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The resort was pitched as a centre where the tech elite could gather to discuss the latest digital innovations.
Ahern became a director and chairman of AB Foundation Company in March of last year. The only other director is Chinese national Danjing Wen and the company’s secretary is his daughter, Luci.
Ahern told The Irish Times his involvement with the AB group arose out of his chairmanship of the Interaction Council, an international group that recruits former heads of state and government to help tackle “political, economic and social problems confronting humanity”.
Last year, the AB Chain group announced plans to develop a 300,000sq m resort in Timor-Leste. The country was formerly called East Timor, with Irish peacekeepers deployed there for five years from 1999, when Ahern was taoiseach.
On the AB website, Ahern was quoted as saying: “The Timor-Leste AB Resort will offer the global blockchain community an immersive environment for research, education, and lifestyle. Through the deep integration of philanthropy and technology, we aim to drive sustainable economic and social development in Timor-Leste.”
However, on Tuesday, he said the quote did not come from him. And the first he heard of the planned resort was when he received a query from “Wall Street” before Christmas.
“The Irish charity group is zero – zero to do with that,” he said. “In fact, we are still not properly set up. My period has finished, so I don’t even know if they have properly set up,” he said.
“I’d never heard anything about it. We had nothing to do with it. I don’t know where it came from, but it had nothing to do with us on the board.
“There were some other leaders actually involved in AB [international], but AB Ireland had zero to do with it.”
Ahern said one of his colleagues from the Interaction Council intervened to stop AB Foundation Company from registering with the Charities Regulator when details of the Timor-Leste project emerged.
He said the council held a meeting in Dublin last summer and the AB group made a presentation at a meeting about artificial intelligence (AI). Ahern said the AB group used videos of the council’s event to make it seem like it was their own event.
“They were only one small part of it,” he said. “They made more of it than it was.”
Although the AB Foundation website lists millions of dollars in donations that it says have come from its charity in Ireland to causes in Timor-Leste and Hong Kong, Ahern said this is not the case. He said the foundation does not have a bank account in Ireland.
Ahern said the company did not “put words in my mouth”, but the quote attributed to him was not real. “They’re a tech company,” he said. “They did this all over the place. They used their tech skills.”
He said he was not going to start promoting cryptocurrencies. “I hardly know how to use my bleedin’ phone, so I’m afraid cryptocurrency and AI is beyond me.”
The Guardian-OCCRP investigation reported that the memorandum of understanding between the Irish AB entity and the international AB group was signed by Danjing. He did not respond to a query on the deal. It was also reported that the deal was terminated last November after the US moved to sanction three individuals in the deal who worked with the Prince Group.
