A businessman told a court in England yesterday that pressure from a former Irish junior minister, Mr Michael Keating, persuaded him to keep his mouth shut when he was originally arrested for involvement in a £20 million VAT fraud last year.
But Mr Daniel O'Connell (46) said he was then shown documents by his solicitor, Mr Mark Fowler, incriminating the politician and indicating customs officers were on to the alleged fraud.
Mr O'Connell said: "Because I had been threatened in the past and knew if I mentioned names there could be serious problems for people near and dear to me, I didn't say anything."
"He [Mr Fowler] was showing me documents, and they showed the names of Mr Keating and Mr O'Neill [Mr Keating's business partner]. Their names were already known to customs and he said I wasn't hiding anything from them not already known." Asked by his QC, Mr Michael Gray, if he then spoke of Mr Keating to the authorities, Mr O'Connell said he did. He told the jury at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court he had acted on Mr Keating's instructions for the best part of three years because of a £150,000 debt he had been unable to make good.
But he denied any personal gain from the operation, which allegedly centred on evading VAT on computer chips. There were four trips to the Bahamas in which Mr O'Connell, who opened up a Bahamas bank account under the company name Seken Ltd, simply acted as a go-between, the court heard.
Mr O'Connell claimed a US bank account was set up by him to avoid transaction charges between currencies when he was in the Bahamas, or elsewhere in the world. Questioned further about the trips to the Bahamas, Mr O'Connell said: "Basically, I carried out documents relating to property. That's what I was told to do, so that is what I did. "When I went to the Bahamas I met Mr Keating's and Mr O'Neill's men. I only did what I was told."
Despite evidence shown to the court of thousands of pounds going through the personal accounts of both his and his fellow defendant, Mr John Dawson, he insisted he never took a penny, but supported himself by dealing in second-hand cars.
Mr O'Connell, of Catherine Street, Limerick, denies five counts of tax evasion and one of cheating the public revenue. Mr Dawson (58), of Mumbles Road, Swansea, denies the same charges.