Crean boss admits authorship of controversial note

The managing director of James Crean plc, Mr Ray McLoughlin, has revealed he was the author of a controversial document written in the 1980s, which describes how the Ansbacher deposits would operate.

Mr McLoughlin issued a statement yesterday saying he had met with the Moriarty tribunal and informed it he had written the document known as "A note to John Furze".

He said he wrote the document after having met with the late Mr Furze, a director of the Cayman Islands bank, Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust, in Dublin, to discuss the details of establishing a discretionary trust.

The Cayman bank later changed name to Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd.

"The note indicates that I intended to send the note to Mr Furze to obtain answers to the various questions and to check whether I had correctly described the information which he had given to me and it also indicates that it was my intention to obtain legal advice in relation to the legal, exchange control and tax implications.

"In the event, I did not take the matter any further because I had decided not to proceed with a discretionary trust."

Mr McLoughlin said he did not have and had not at any time placed money on deposit with or through Ansbacher (Cayman), either directly or indirectly.

Mr McLoughlin has also said he never placed money on deposit with the Guernsey company, College Trustees.

Last month, a former partner with Davy Stockbrokers, Mr Kyran McLaughlin, met with the Moriarty tribunal and is understood to have said he was not the author of the controversial report, though he did meet with Mr Furze in Dublin in 1983.

The document's existence was first revealed in the High Court in September and was believed at the time to have been written by the stockbroker.

It is understood Mr McLaughlin may have known the true author of the report. The document had been in personal files kept by him but was given to the tribunal and to the authorised officer investigating the Ansbacher deposits, Mr Gerard Ryan, by someone who had access to Mr McLaughlin's files.

Mr McLoughlin said yesterday he did not have the document in his files and that it only came into his possession last week.

It is not clear how the document came into Mr McLaughlin's possession. It may have been given to him by Mr Furze or by Mr McLoughlin. Davy Stockbrokers are stockbrokers to James Crean and the two men know each other.

In his statement yesterday, Mr McLoughlin said: "On or about September 1983, at the request of Guinness & Mahon (Dublin), I met an executive from the bank's Cayman subsidiary, Mr John Furze, who was visiting Dublin on a business trip and who was seeking opportunities to outline the services which the Cayman subsidiary could offer in relation to discretionary trusts."

The controversial document "is, in effect, a statement of the information given to me by Mr Furze" at the 1983 meeting, Mr McLoughlin said.