Precise routeing of claimed transactions established

THE tribunal team has established firm details of the trail involved in the payments of almost £1.3 million central to its inquiries.

Five payments are involved in Mr Ben Duane's allegations that he paid money to Mr Charles Haughey - Four - totalling £1.1 million - were central to legal correspondence between Mr Ben Dunne and the other members of his family. The final payment of £210,000 was made in 1991, the tribunal heard in the overall total to more than £1.3 million.

The first four transactions all followed a similar, though not identical, pattera.

At least three of the first four payments originated outside the State (the originating account of the fourth is not revealed), went into overseas bank accounts and ended up, the tribunal heard, in Guinness & Mahon in Dublin, in an account in the name of another bank, Henry Ansbacher & Co.

The first payment, in December 1987 originated in an Ulster Bank account in Newry operated by Dunnes Stores in Bangor and was paid into a Guinness & Mahon (G&M) account in London in the name of a Cayman Island banker, Mr John Furze. It subsequently went to the Ansbacher account in G&M in Dublin.

The second payment of £471,000 sterling (£500,000 in Irish currency) was paid out of a Zurich bank account into a Barclays account in London in Mr Furze's name. It then went to the Ansbacher account in G&M in Dublin.

The third payment of £150,000 sterling was paid into an Ansbacher account in the Royal Bank of Scotland in London and then went to the same Dublin account.

The fourth a meat of £200,000 sterling originated in Dunnes operations in the Isle of Man and went through an Ansbacher account in London to that bank's account in Dublin.

The fifth payment was different from the other four. Here Mr Duane alleges that he paid three £70,000 bank drafts directly to Mr Haughey The money ended up in an Irish Intercontinental Bank account, again operated by Henry Ansbacher. The three signatories to this account were an accountant, Mr Des Traynor, and two Cayman Island bankers, Mr John Furze and Mr John Collins.