Financial scandals during 1999 provided some of the year's most controversial news stories and fell into two main categories: tax evasion and the misappropriation of funds.

A man not generally known to the public but whose work was at the heart of arguably the most significant revelation during the year was Mr Gerard Ryan, an accountant and civil servant with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Since soon after the McCracken tribunal reported in August 1997 Mr Ryan, as an officer authorised under section 21 of the Companies Act, 1990, has been investigating the Ansbacher deposits. His inquiries began when the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, appointed him to Celtic Helicopters, the firm part-owned by Mr Ciaran Haughey.

Because of links Celtic Helicopters had with the Ansbacher deposits, the inquiry was widened to include four companies linked to the running of the secretive accounts: Guinness & Mahon bank; Irish Intercontinental Bank; Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd; and Hamilton Ross. The latter two companies are registered in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Ryan was subsequently appointed to Kentford Securities and College Trustees, the former being a company used by the late Mr Des Traynor for the purpose of opening bank accounts and moving funds, and the latter a Guernsey-based subsidiary of Credit Suisse used by wealthy Irish people establishing trusts abroad. College Trustees has informed Mr Ryan it will not be co-operating with his inquiry.

The climax of Mr Ryan's work to date came in September when Ms Harney made a successful application to the High Court for the appointment of inspectors to investigate the affairs of Ansbacher (Cayman).

The application was based on an affidavit which depended largely on a confidential report compiled by Mr Ryan and which outlines how a secret financial service - the Ansbacher deposits - involving tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds, was used by some of the most wealthy individuals in the State and was aimed in the main at assisting tax evasion.

The court heard how in 1987 eight of the 15 members of the board of one of the State's largest plcs, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), were the beneficiaries of Ansbacher deposit accounts, and that the deposits were part of an unauthorised bank operated in this jurisdiction by the late Mr Traynor. He was chairman of CRH and for a number of years the bank was operated from his office in CRH headquarters on Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin.

As well as providing a banking service to some 100 Irish residents - who had lodged up to £50 million (€64 million) in the secretive bank at one stage - the operation also included a service for creating offshore trusts and companies. The court was told that the total amount involved in these might amount to hundreds of millions of pounds.

A former CRH director, Mr Jim Culliton, who was believed to be one of those cited in Mr Ryan's report, refused to comment on the matter but resigned from his position as non-executive chairman of the Hibernian Group, as well as from the non-executive chairmanship of Nortel. He also resigned his directorship of the Jury/Doyle hotel group. The CRH chairman, Mr Tony Barry, issued a statement saying he had transferred money into Ansbacher or a related company, Hamilton Ross, but that it had been fully-declared after-tax income. Other former CRH directors named as having links to the accounts were the late Mr Traynor, Dr Michael Dargan, Mr Gerry Hickey, Mr Bob Willis, the late Mr Diarmuid Quirke, and Mr Richard F. Wood.

Dr Dargan told the Moriarty tribunal last March that he held an Ansbacher account in the Cayman Islands which was used for the international transfer of funds.

Other leading figures in the business world have also been linked to the deposits. The Revenue, having been given a copy of Mr Ryan's report, is now involved in a detailed inquiry into the depositors' affairs. The report of the High Court inspectors - retired High Court judge, Mr Justice Declan Costello, accountant Mr Paul Rowan, and Ms Noreen Mackay, barrister - may be published and will undoubtedly contain the names of the individuals involved. The fact that someone is named in a report as having had links with the Ansbacher deposits does not mean that person has committed any offence.

There were other business controversies during the year not quite on the scale of the Ansbacher scandal but of significance nonetheless. The former investment broker, Mr Tony Taylor (52), whose group of companies collapsed soon after his disappearance in August 1996, was back in the news when he was arrested in Brighton in August.

Mr Taylor is facing 15 charges in relation to financial losses totalling approximately £600,000.

Another investment broker, Mr Finbarr Ross, was extradited from the US to Northern Ireland in May. Mr Ross (53) is being held in prison pending his trial on 41 fraud-related charges linked to his company, International Investments, which collapsed in 1984. Mr Ross had unsuccessfully fought his extradition from the US where he had been living since the early 1980s.

In February, MMI Stockbrokers was placed in provisional liquidation with money owed to the company by its clients totalling millions of pounds more than the company's own liabilities of more than £14 million. It emerged that the company had been involved in massive investments in Dana Petroleum shares and was offering a rollover service to its clients. When the Dana price dropped, the company found itself in huge difficulties.

The provisional liquidator Mr Tom Kavanagh was subsequently appointed the official liquidator. In October the High Court gave Mr Kavanagh permission to issue summonses alleging fraudulent conversation and breach of fiduciary duty against seven of the company's directors.

Mr Kavanagh told the court he believed approximately £1.9 million had been misappropriated from the company and that he could link two directors - Mr Oisin Fanning and Mr John Curran - with more than £1 million of that amount. The two directors subsequently denied the allegations and requested an early trial of the matter.

An intriguing aspect of the case was the emergence of a Co Clare bookmaker and amusement arcade owner, Mr Adrian Lynch (43), of Kilrush, as the alleged owner of a significant investment account at the heart of the alleged fraud. The account, which at one stage held Dana shares worth more than £5 million, was held in the name of a Jersey-registered company, Cater Allen, which is a subsidiary of the Abbey National group. Central Bank documents given to Mr Kavanagh identified the beneficial owner as Mr Lynch. Mr Lynch told The Irish Times that he was not the owner of the account, and had never heard of Cater Allen, MMI Stockbrokers, or any of its directors.

Mr Kavanagh alleged in his affidavit to the High Court that the £1.9 million which had been misappropriated came from the Cater Allen account and was transferred to other accounts including accounts in the name of, or linked to, Mr Fanning and Mr Curran. The net effect of the transfers was to reduce the amount owed to Cater Allen, and reduce the amounts owed by the accounts to which the money was transferred. The ownership of the Cater Allen account will be a central concern of the court case likely to take place next year.

In November one of the most powerful figures in the Irish stockbroking community, Mr Kyran McLaughlin, of Davy Stockbrokers, resigned from the board of the firm after it emerged he had established a Liechtenstein trust for members of his family. Mr McLaughlin said the trust had been established in 1986 using after-tax funds but that there might be tax issues in need of resolution. The amount invested is understood to have been about £250,000. Mr McLaughlin is expected to return to the Davy board.