Some senior figures in Irish business and the professions are waiting nervously this weekend for the next chapter in the Ansbacher saga. It will only be a matter of time now before a letter from the Revenue Commissioners arrives on the mat or before they are "outed" as having held the deposits. Hefty tax bills and severe embarrassment could result.
For some people, the Cayman Islands have been playing a central role in their finances for 25 years or more; they must have thought that their secret was safe.
The deposits might have remained hidden for ever had it not been for the media investigation and the work of the McCracken tribunal team.
In 1996, two reports appeared which were to lead eventually to the McCracken tribunal and discovery of the Ansbacher deposits. First, the Irish Independent reported that Ben Dunne had paid for refurbishment of Michael Lowry's house. Shortly afterwards, The Irish Times revealed that a senior Fianna Fail politician - later identified as Charles Haughey - had received over £1 million from Mr Dunne.
The Cayman link was subsequently made through the deceased banker John Furze. Mr Dunne was instructed by Des Traynor to make some of the donations to Mr Haughey payable to Mr Furze. Had it been a John Smith, the connection might never have been made, but the only two John Furzes in any Who's Who, or in any international media reports, were a professor in the southern US and a Cayman Islands banker. When it emerged that the bank Mr Furze ran was Guinness & Mahon (Cayman) - established by Des Traynor and later bought by Ansbacher - the circle began to close.
It was the McCracken tribunal investigators, however, who first pointed towards the use of the Cayman Islands bank as one used for widespread tax evasion, as opposed to just being a vehicle for payments to Mr Haughey. The main function of that tribunal was to examine payments to politicians from Dunnes Stores. It stumbled on the Ansbacher deposits as it was into these funds that payments from Mr Dunne to Mr Haughey, via Mr Furze, were deposited.
SOME £38 million was invested in these funds by 1989, the McCracken tribunal estimated, although it was not in its brief to delve any further into the affairs of any depositors other than Mr Haughey. The McCracken tribunal, however, threw up some other facts which allowed Mary Harney to appoint authorised officers to a number of companies, to investigate possible breaches of company law.
Among the companies to which she appointed authorised officers were Celtic Helicopters (the company controlled by Mr Haughey's son, Ciaran) and the two banks in which Guinness & Mahon (Cayman), later Ansbacher (Cayman), held the accounts in Dublin: Guinness & Mahon and Irish Intercontinental Bank. It was the investigation by authorised officer Gerard Ryan into the two Irish banks which brought to light the new information which appeared in this week's court affidavit.
The affidavit painted a picture of a tax-evasion scheme much broader and more sophisticated than previously thought. For a start, the amount of money hidden in Ansbacher deposits in Guinness & Mahon and IIB in Dublin was £50 million, somewhat above the £38 million estimated by McCracken. A total of 100 depositors had been identified, along with 20 other individuals with links to Ansbacher (Cayman).
More significant, however, was the bombshell in the final few paragraphs of the affidavit from Paul Appleby, one of Ms Harney's senior officials. As well as the £50 million in the deposits themselves, the Irish residents also had substantial amounts of money channelled through the bank into overseas trusts and companies. This, Mr Appleby said, could amount to a few hundred million pounds, indicating that Ansbacher (Cayman) was the most significant single tax-evasion scheme yet uncovered in the Republic.
THE other main revelation in the affidavit was the question raised about the role of CRH, Ireland's largest industrial company. Mr Traynor left Guinness & Mahon in 1986 and assumed the chairmanship of the CRH board the following year. He conducted the business of Ansbacher (Cayman) from the company's offices in Merrion Square, Dublin.
The affidavit argues that Ansbacher was effectively operating as an unlicensed bank. Given that eight of the 15 board members of CRH in 1987 held money with Ansbacher (Cayman), the affidavit argued that they were aware of what was going on in the group's Dublin office.
CRH argues strongly that its board never discussed what was going on and was not aware of it. A statement last night from the four 1987 directors who are still on the board claimed that three of them had no links with Ansbacher.
One, the current chairman, Tony Barry, said that he had established an offshore trust for the benefit of two children living overseas. He says that he thinks the accounts were with either Ansbacher or an associated company, Hamilton Ross, and that the money paid into the trust was out of after-tax income.
Many of the depositors will now be asked by the Revenue Commissioners about the source of the funds deposited with Ansbacher (Cayman) and whether all tax liabilities were met. The details in the affidavit illustrate clearly that one of the key intentions of Mr Traynor in managing the funds was to hide them from the Revenue Commissioners.
While the McCracken report described the operation of the deposit accounts as "a very ingenious system", Ansbacher's management of offshore trusts and companies for its clients was no less sophisticated.
Loans were extended to deposit-holders using money contained in the Ansbacher accounts as security. While these were guaranteed by Irish banks, none of the bank documentation disclosed the source of the security. This was similar to the manner in which no record was kept of depositors' names by the institutions holding the money, Guinness & Mahon and Irish Intercontinental Bank.
Irish Intercontinental Bank itself provided loan and guarantee facilities of up to £24 million sterling for these "back-to-back" loans. The service enabled those holding money offshore to borrow on the strength of their own deposits. Companies owned by the depositors were able to cut their corporation tax bills by treating the interest on the loans as a deductible expense.
By way of examples, the affidavit named a number of companies controlled by prominent business people. Carlisle Trust, owned by property developer John Byrne, and another of Mr Byrne's companies, Alstead Securities, were granted loans for £17.5 million secured by Ansbacher. Mr Byrne is a longtime associate of Mr Haughey and of Mr Traynor.
Estate agent John Finnegan was cited as the beneficiary of a £1.88 million loan.
Lyndon Properties, of which Clayton Love jnr was a director, was revealed to have been a beneficiary of a £2 million sterling loan from IIB which was secured by Ansbacher. The loan was negotiated by Mr Traynor. Mr Love has denied being a depositor.
Ansbacher's arrangements "appear to convey a veneer of legitimacy", the affidavit said. In practice, however, it said, the business gave rise to substantial breaches of company law.
Secrecy and speculation still surround the identity of most of the 120 individuals associated with Ansbacher, but it is clear that the majority are senior figures with substantial resources. These people are likely now to be named, although it is not clear when.
Only after the Revenue Commissioners and three High Court inspectors complete their work will the true extent of Ansbacher's dealings be revealed.
The inspectors and the commissioners are already at work.