Bula report given to Criminal Assets Bureau

The Criminal Assets Bureau has been given a copy of the Bula Resources report so it can take "such action as is deemed appropriate", the Tanaiste, Ms Harney has said.

The report into share dealings involving Bula, its former chairman and managing director, Mr Jim Stanley, and Russian oil deals which led to the company losing approximately £20 million (#25.39 million), was completed in July 1998.

It is the first time the bureau has been officially linked with the recent business scandals.

Ms Harney, responding to a recent Dail question from the Labour Party spokesman on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said she had also sent the report to the Company Law Review Group. The report was written by barrister Mr Lyndon MacCann, who was appointed an inspector under the Companies Acts.

In his report Mr MacCann found that Mr Stanley, who now lives in Russia, had benefited by £660,000 sterling (#1,064,516) as a result of the sale of Bula shares transferred to an offshore company as part of a Russian oil deal put together by him.

Mr Stanley, in an interview with The Irish Times after publication of the report, contested its findings. He said the offshore company, Mir Oil Development Ltd, belonged to Mr Craig Bond, son of disgraced Australian tycoon, Alan Bond. Mr Stanley could not be contacted last night. Assets belonging or alleged to belong to Mr Stanley were the subject of a High Court freezing order made in 1998. The order was lifted in November 2000 after the settlement of an action by Bula against Mr Stanley, arising out of the disastrous Russian ventures.

Mr Stanley's assets in this jurisdiction were understood to include money on deposit, shares and a large house, Brownsbarn, in Co Kilkenny, the ownership of which was disputed. It is unclear if he still has assets in the jurisdiction.

The Bula report has also been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Ms Harney has decided, on foot of legal advice, not to proceed with summary prosecutions for suspected breaches of the Companies Acts identified in the report.

Ms Harney said the inquiry by High Court inspectors into Ansbacher Cayman, the bank at the heart of the Ansbacher deposits, may be completed by December, subject to the completion of legal proceedings.

The cost to her Department of company law investigations instigated since 1997 is just more than £5 million, Ms Harney said. "I intend to request the High Court to order the full recoupment from the companies of these costs."