Former Tughans lawyer ‘received no benefit’ from Nama sale

The Belfast lawyer at the heart of allegations concerning the £1.2 billion purchase of the National Asset Management Agency's loan portfolio in Northern Ireland says no politician in the North or any of their relatives was "ever to receive any monies" from the transaction.

Ian Coulter, the former managing partner of Belfast law firm Tughans, who provided legal counsel on the purchase of the Nama portfolio by New York-headquartered Cerberus Capital Management, has also said he personally did not receive any "financial benefit" for his work on the deal.

The Independent TD Mick Wallace had alleged in the Dáil earlier this month that £7 million had been lodged in an offshore bank account from the Nama transaction with Cerberus and that this money had been earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician or a certain party. Speaking publicly for the first time today since the allegations were made Mr Coulter denied that this was the case.

‘Consultancy fees’

Instead he said the money which “has been called into question” – and which he said was actually £7.5 million – “was part of the total legal and consultancy fees agreed as payable by Cerberus to Brown Rudnick”, the American law firm that had been retained directly by Cerberus to advise them. Mr Coulter said through Tughans he had been “formally engaged” to provide local legal counsel to Brown Rudnick.

According to Mr Coulter, neither he nor any third party has received any part of the £7.5 million fees and that “no politician, nor any relative of any politician in Northern Ireland, was ever to receive any monies in any way” as part of the Nama/Cerberus deal.

“The fees payable were paid into a Tughans company account supervised by the firm’s Finance team. In September 2014, a portion of the fees was retained by Tughans and I instructed Tughans’ Finance Director to transfer the remaining portion into an external account which was controlled only by me. Not a penny of this money was touched.”

He said he transferred the money back to Tughans in early December 2014 and brought the matter to their attention.