The Fianna Fail TD Mr Denis Foley admitted yesterday that he knew he was an Ansbacher account-holder before November 1999 when the Moriarty tribunal first contacted him. This was contrary to previous evidence.
Under strong questioning from counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, Mr Foley accepted that he knew by at least as early as last May, when he received statements labelled Ansbacher Ltd, that he had money in the offshore deposits.
However, the Kerry North TD said he went into denial and was "hoping against hope" it might not be true.
Mr Foley was pressed further as to whether he may have known he had Ansbacher deposits as early as August 1997, when the McCracken report was published.
Mr Coughlan put it to him that he must have noticed his investment shared "common ingredients" with the Ansbacher deposits as described in the report.
These ingredients, said Mr Coughlan, included "Mr Des Traynor, offshore, the bank Guinness & Mahon being used, Mr John Furze, 42 Fitzwilliam Square, Mr Padraig Collery, Hamilton Ross."
Mr Foley replied: "I was still hoping against hope."
However, still referring to the McCracken report, Mr Coughlan said: "whilst you continued to hope, Mr Foley, wasn't it becoming more and more obvious that the evidence was stacking up and was overwhelmingly suggesting to you your money was in Ansbacher?"
"That is correct, sir," Mr Foley replied.
Attempting to clarify the issue, Mr Coughlan later suggested to him: "You had been through public business setting up this tribunal [in September 1997] . . . and all of the time, all of the time, Mr Foley, you knew you were in Ansbacher. Isn't that right, all of the time?"
Mr Foley: "Well, when I got the statements . . ."
Mr Coughlan: "Ah, but you knew before that, Mr Foley."
Mr Foley: "I was still hoping against hope I wasn't in Ansbacher."
Mr Coughlan: "I understand that, Mr Foley, and I sympathise and it's perfectly understandable, but what I am saying is all of the evidence, to you as a thinking man carrying out the public business, could only have driven you to the conclusion that `I am in Ansbacher', isn't that right?"
Mr Foley: "That is correct. But if I had realised it at that stage, I would have been moving much sooner."
Previously, Mr Foley had claimed he did not know he was an Ansbacher depositor until November 1999 when the tribunal contacted him.
He also admitted yesterday that he did not give his Ansbacher statements to his accountant in order to make a full declaration to the Revenue Commissioners until after the tribunal found out he was a depositor.
He said he never examined the statements but put them away for safekeeping in his home. Despite this, he insisted: "I always had every intention of declaring the money."
Mr Foley said he felt he might not have had a heart attack in the mid-1980s if he had known that a £70,000 loan taken out by his company had been repaid by offshore funds.
He said that although the loan from Guinness & Mahon bank to Central Tourist Holdings in Co Kerry was paid off in 1985 and a "fictitious loan account" set up instead, he was still getting statements in 1987 which suggested that £135,000 was owed.
He only discovered last year, when informed by the tribunal, that the loan had been backed by offshore funds. He had believed that each of the directors might have had to pay £25,000 to discharge the loan.
The security letter for the £70,000 loan said it was guaranteed jointly and severally by the four directors of the company. In reality, the loan was also secured by deposit in the offshore accounts controlled by Mr Traynor.
Mr Foley paid £5,000 that he believed was going to go towards discharging the loan and paying the company's creditors. However, Mr Coughlan said it was not known where that money had gone. ail TD Mr Foleyalso paid £2,700 towards a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners.
He also signed a cheque for £42,680 drawn on an account to which the proceeds of the sale of the Central Hotel had been lodged. He believed this money was going towards repaying the loan. The Central Hotel and ballroom in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, raised some £177,000 when it was sold in 1987.
Earlier, the tribunal heard how Mr Foley got £10,000 in cash from Des Traynor at his office in the headquarters of Cement Roadstone Holdings in 1993.
The money was a withdrawal by Mr Foley from the offshore account Mr Traynor had set up for him when he was at Guinness & Mahon. Mr Traynor left the bank four years earlier but still had control of Mr Foley's offshore account.
Mr Foley did not inquire about the balance in his account, but Mr Traynor said the "rates were good". He agreed that he knew at the time the money was coming from a bank account and that it was offshore. Mr Foley received the money in cash.