Inquiries continue into £35,000 paid into Burke account in Jersey

The Flood tribunal is continuing its investigations into a £35,000 payment to Mr Ray Burke's offshore account in Jersey in March 1984.

The payment is one of four substantial remittances to Caviar Ltd, a shelf company controlled by Mr Burke, or to Mr Burke directly between 1982 and 1985. The other three payments were made by Mr Burke's builder friends Mr Joe McGowan and Mr Tom Brennan, but the former minister says the fourth lodgement to his Jersey account was the result of an inter-bank transfer of his own funds.

On behalf of Mr Burke, a Dublin solicitor, Mr Oliver Conlon, wrote to a Jersey law firm, Bedell and Cristin, in March 1984 asking it to set up a company for his client so that he could open an account in Jersey. The matter was "of considerable urgency", Mr Conlon said.

Bedell and Cristin had "quite a number of Irish resident clients", Mr Simon Howard, a lawyer with the firm, told the tribunal. The company in question, Caviar Ltd, was needed to facilitate a transaction that was about to take place, he said.

Asked where the name Caviar came from, Mr Howard said staff in his legal firm would often "conjure up" names for new companies. Mr Burke had asked that the company be named Atheneum, but this was not available.

Mr Howard said there was a "slight inconsistency" in the instructions regarding the beneficial owners, who were listed as "Mr P.D. Burke" and Mrs A. Burke, and the mailing instructions for correspondence, which was sent to Mr Conlon for the attention of "Mr A. Burke".

On April 19th, 1984, £35,000 was lodged to Caviar's account with Hill Samuel in Jersey. In earlier evidence, Mr Burke has said this represented part of a larger amount he had withdrawn from an Isle of Man account and then lodged in the Bruton Street branch of AIB in London, before moving it to Jersey.

Mr Hanratty pointed out that Mr Tom Brennan's company, Kalabraki, also had an account in Bruton Street. In March 1984, Kalabraki moved £232,000 from its account in Bruton Street to the Chase Bank, Jersey. Mr Brennan was present in Bedell and Cristin's office in Jersey on April 9th, 1984, 10 days before the money was paid to Caviar's account.