Mr Barry Maloney said Mr Denis O'Brien told him for the first time on October 20th, 1997, that his conversation a year earlier, about a £100,000 payment to Mr Michael Lowry, was bravado.
The former Esat Digifone chief executive said yesterday it was a completely new explanation by Mr O'Brien, and his conversations up to then about the payment had been "deadly serious".
Although Mr O'Brien in evidence had denied he mentioned Mr Lowry, Mr Maloney said he would not have been concerned about the payment if Mr Lowry had not been mentioned. Mr O'Brien made his statement about the payment being bravado at an informal meeting of Esat Digifone shareholders to discuss the matter of the payment.
Mr O'Brien had said during the meeting he apologised to Mr Maloney for telling him about the payment and putting him in a difficult position.
"What was said was said while we were out for a run and that it was just a bit of bravado on his part," according to Mr Maloney's notes from the meeting.
Mr Maloney said that during Mr O'Brien's two conversations with him in August 1997, when he said he had in fact not made the payment, there was no mention of bravado.
"All of the conversations until the 20th were deadly serious conversations where he sought to reassure me there was no payment," Mr Maloney said.
Mr Maloney said that although Mr O'Brien had a good sense of humour and both men would laugh and joke, he did not think he was joking when he told him about the payment.
Mr Maloney said he had corrected Mr O'Brien's statement about the payment at the end of the meeting after Mr O'Brien had hung up on a conference call. This was not included in his notes of the meeting, he said.
At another meeting on October 23rd, 1997, described as an informal meeting of the Esat Digifone directors, Mr Maloney said he again sought to clear up the matter of the payment to Mr Lowry.
Mr Maloney said he brought a document of 10 points, which explained the sequence of events.
He also heard for the first time on October 23rd that the intermediary referred to at a meeting between Mr O'Brien and himself on October 8th was Woodchester Bank. Then Mr O'Brien had said he had not made the payment to Mr Lowry as it had got stuck with an intermediary.
Mr Maloney said he thought it unusual for a bank to be an intermediary in this fashion.
A check was carried out after the meeting to see if a payment of £100,000 existed in the accounts, Mr Maloney added.