Certain payments made within the Dunnes Stores group in 1987 and 1992 "were made in circumstances which strongly suggested that there was no commercial justification for the making of the payments", the High Court was told.
The claim was made in an affidavit by Mr Paul Appleby, Principal Officer in the Department of Enterprise and Employment.
He said such payments had characteristics similar to those investigated by the McCracken tribunal which investigated payments to the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, and the former transport minister, Mr Michael Lowry.
In the affidavit, Mr Appleby said current concerns within the Department related to how the Dunnes company could have had such loose management and financial structures that there were not sufficient checks and balances to prevent the kind of behaviour conducted by Mr Ben Dunne.
Mr Appleby said that last May Mr Gerard Ryan, the authorised officer appointed in respect of Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) bank, wrote to Dunnes Stores. Mr Appleby said the Minister had information arising from investigations under the 1990 Companies Act which impacted on Dunnes Stores Ireland Company and Dunnes Stores (ILAC) Centre in relation to Garuda Ltd, Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) Ltd and Celtic Helicopters Ltd.
She also had information from the McCracken report and from the committee of inquiry set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. The matter was given rigorous and detailed consideration before the appointment of an investigator, Mr Appleby said.