False paper trail used to move money - lawyer

Former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor created a false paper trail to allow him to move large sums of money offshore, tribunal lawyers have claimed.Correspondence between Mr Lawlor's Irish solicitors and his legal advisers in Gibraltar about the transfer of funds arising from an Irish land sale was "entirely false", according to Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal.

Although the letter referred to the land proceeds being used to pay off an offshore loan, the correspondence was actually set up to create a paper trail that would allow Mr Lawlor to receive the money in Gibraltar, Mr O'Neill claimed.

Yesterday, Mr O'Neill asked him if he was aware of money laundering legislation designed to regulate the transfer of foreign assets. The banks in Gibraltar could only receive money if they were satisfied the funds were the proceeds of a legitimate transaction. It was for this reason that the letter suggested the money related to the repayment of a loan.

Mr Lawlor said he was aware of the regulations, but expressed "total surprise" that this could have any relevance to the sale of one acre of his land in Lucan.

Mr O'Neill said the money sent to Gibraltar was not required to pay off a loan, as Mr Lawlor had claimed. It was instead his entitlement, the "just desserts" of his dealings with the financial lawyer Mr John Caldwell. However, Mr Lawlor had failed to tell the tribunal in 2001 that it was not a loan.

Mr Lawlor made almost £700,000 from his involvement with Mr Caldwell in two land deals in Lucan and Baldoyle in the 1990s.

Yesterday, he explained that he had been in dispute with Mr Caldwell and did not know at this time that Mr Caldwell would pay him money arising from two land deals in which they were involved. Instead, money was advanced to him by a Bahamian-registered company, Longwater Investments.

Mr Lawlor said there were only "thousands" unaccounted for in his accounts, not the millions claimed by the tribunal. He had carried out "exhaustive" checks on his accounts since 1983 and it was up to the tribunal to identify the unexplained amounts.

However, Mr O'Neill repeated his previous assertion that the documents provided by Mr Lawlor revealed unexplained millions.

Judge Mahon said this was the tribunal's position. There was no explanation for the significant sums of money found in Mr Lawlor's accounts.

Mr Lawlor said he begged to differ.

Questioned about correspondence involving one of his banks, Mr Lawlor offered to obtain more information for the tribunal - once his secretary returned from holiday.

However, Mr Justice Mahon said this approach was "happening all the time". This should have been done a long time ago; the matter had been "simmering" for months.

"Now your secretary is on holiday. Why hasn't this happened before?" Mr Lawlor said he thought the tribunal was seeking information on the source of his funds, not their dispersal.

Judge Mahon said the tribunal was not impressed by the fact that Mr Lawlor was looking for additional time at this late stage.

Later, it emerged that Mr Lawlor had a 25 per cent stake in an offshore company involved in a land deal in Baldoyle from which he earned £335,000 profit. He held the stake in Trennery Investments, registered in the British Virgin Islands, through the Rilton Foundation in Liechtenstein.

Mr Lawlor said he informed Mr Caldwell about the possibilities of the land, and Mr Caldwell put up the acquisition funds. He didn't know who owned the rest of Trennery, but he believed it was Mr Caldwell.

Asked if he had met anyone else about this land, he said he may have met Mr John Byrne, the property developer.

Mr Lawlor may learn today whether the tribunal intends taking court proceedings to jail him for non-co-operation.

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