Tribunal hears of Lawlor's account concealment

The Mahon tribunal has heard how former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor deliberately concealed the source of money held in an Ulster…

The Mahon tribunal has heard how former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor deliberately concealed the source of money held in an Ulster Bank account and was the subject of a money laundering investigation by the bank.

The tribunal heard how the bank became suspicious of a £50,000 lodgement placed in the account of a taxi driver friend of Mr Lawlor's, Mr John Long, in its Palmerstown branch in 1998.

The money was lodged as earnings made by Mr Long when he lived in Britain but the bank discovered the money had in fact come from one of Mr Lawlor's bank accounts in Liechenstein.

The tribunal was shown a document from the Ulster Bank detailing its concern about the source of the money.

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Judge Alan Mahon put it to Mr Lawlor that claiming the source of these funds as Mr Long's earnings was "false", to which Mr Lawlor agreed.

The tribunal has established that Mr Lawlor received as much as £685,000 for his part in Irish land deals in the form of loan agreements channeled through his bank accounts in Liechenstein.

Counsel for the tribunal Mr Des O'Neill put it to Mr Lawlor that he changed his evidence about this arrangement in December 2001 when he realised the tribunal was "on the verge of cracking the relationship" between himself, the bank accounts in Liechenstein and the solicitor Mr John Caldwell.

He accused Mr Lawlor of deliberately keeping information from the tribunal and only admitting his involvement in business deals when the evidence had been proved.

Mr O'Neill put to Mr Lawlor that he had continually "played cat and mouse" with the tribunal.

Mr Lawlor rejected this saying, "he had no difficulty in saying what had to be said" and that he had cooperated with the tribunal to the best of his ability.

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy is Economics Correspondent of The Irish Times