Secret banking coming to a sorry end

The tribunal played hardball yesterday with Mr Sam Field-Corbett, a former employee of Haughey Boland and a close friend and …

The tribunal played hardball yesterday with Mr Sam Field-Corbett, a former employee of Haughey Boland and a close friend and colleague of the late Mr Des Traynor.

Although Mr Field-Corbett's personal affairs are, on the face of it, no business of the tribunal's, he was named yesterday as someone who had an Ansbacher deposit account.

The fact was not mentioned in his memorandum of intended evidence, but came out in the course of his being questioned by the tribunal counsel, Mr Jerry Healy SC. Mr Ray Fulham SC, for Mr Field-Corbett, objected to how his client's affairs were being treated, but to no avail.

As Mr Field-Corbett was leaving the witness box at the end of the day's hearing, he smiled ruefully at the tribunal solicitor, Mr John Davies, and drew his finger across his throat.

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Another person who has never held public office, Ms Joan Williams, was also identified by Mr Healy as having had an account in the Ansbacher deposits. Ms Williams was Mr Traynor's secretary at Guinness & Mahon bank and moved with him to Cement Roadstone Holdings in 1986.

She has been repeatedly mentioned in the tribunal's proceedings, but has not yet been called to give evidence.

In July 1998 Mr Padraig Collery, a former Guinness & Mahon banker who was heavily involved in the running of the deposits, travelled to the Cayman Islands to review the balances on some of the accounts still existing.

Money was taken from a number of them to pay for legal expenses incurred by the Cayman banker, the late Mr John Furze, without the permission of the account-holders. No money was taken from the accounts of Mr Collery, Mr Field-Corbett or Ms Williams.

Mr Healy said such was the desire for secrecy the whole Ansbacher deposits structure was never put on a proper legal footing in the Cayman Islands.

With the death of Mr Traynor and Mr Furze, and others not wanting to be involved any more because of the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals, some Irish residents who claim to have money in Cayman are now having great difficulty getting information about their affairs.

The secret banking system for the wealthy is stumbling towards a sorry end. It was different 20 years ago when Mr Furze would visit Dublin and after the work had been done would attend dinners with his wife which were also attended by Mr Traynor and his wife, Mr Collery and his wife, Mr Field-Corbett and his wife, and Ms Williams.

When the system was in its glory days statements for account-holders were prepared two or three times a year, put in envelopes by Ms Williams and delivered to the account-holders by Mr Traynor's driver.

The driver, who has not been identified, was also involved in making large cash deliveries to account-holders, sometimes of tens of thousands of pounds. For eight years this activity was conducted from the registered offices of Cement Roadstone. Thereafter Mr Collery moved the operation to Mr Field-Corbett's offices in Winetavern Street.

Mr Ray McLoughlin, chief executive of the publicly quoted industrial holding company Crean, also gave evidence yesterday. He met Mr Furze in the offices of Guinness & Mahon bank in September 1983, to discuss discretionary trusts.

Mr Furze, it seems, was over in Dublin drumming up business. After the meeting Mr McLoughlin drafted a lengthy note covering the content of the meeting.

However, Mr McLoughlin said, he could remember very little of the affair. He had not taken the matter any further.

His document, A note to John Furze, was given to the tribunal by someone who had access to the personal papers of Mr Kyran McLaughlin, the former joint managing director of Davy Stockbrokers.

Mr McLoughlin said he had a "vague recollection" that he might have been asked once by the stockbroker if he knew Mr Furze, as Mr McLaughlin had been asked to meet him. He might have given the document to his friend in that context. However, he could not remember.

The tribunal resumes on Tuesday when evidence is to be heard concerning the knowledge which the Central Bank had of the secretive deposits as far back as the 1970s, and why nothing was done to close the system down.