Guinness & Mahon banker 'lied under oath' to tribunal

A former banker with Guinness & Mahon Bank, Padraig Collery, lied under oath to the Moriarty tribunal, according to the tribunal chairman's report.

The previously unreported findings on Mr Collery also state that he "wilfully gave evidence to the tribunal which was material to the tribunal's inquiries and which he knew to be false or did not believe to be true".

The report also said Mr Collery "obstructed or hindered the tribunal in the performance of its functions".

There is no mention in the report of any of these matters being referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Persons found to have obstructed the tribunal can be refused their legal costs and charged with some of the tribunal's own costs.

Mr Collery could not be contacted yesterday for a comment.

Criminal charges were brought against the former taoiseach, the late Charles Haughey, for obstructing the work of the 1997 McCracken (Dunnes Payments) tribunal but the trial never went ahead. Perjury charges are very rare.

Mr Collery is a banking software expert who worked as an assistant to the late Des Traynor at Guinness & Mahon bank. He became a partner to Mr Traynor in the secretive Ansbacher operation and after Mr Traynor's death in 1994 took over the running of remaining aspects of that operation.

In March of last year Mr Collery was disqualified by the High Court for nine years from acting as a company director, arising out of the findings of the inspectors who inquired into the Ansbacher operation. Mr Collery was not a company director.

In evidence given in private session to the Moriarty tribunal in November 1998, Mr Collery said the beneficiary of an Ansbacher account coded A/A40 was a Cayman Islands banker, the late John Furze.

However, the account in fact belonged to the former Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry North, Denis Foley.

The tribunal learned this when documents that Mr Collery was seeking to hide from the tribunal were given to it by Margaret Keogh, a former secretary to whom he'd given them for safe keeping in 1999, prior to moving them elsewhere. The documents attributed the account to Mr Foley.

The documents had been generated during a trip Mr Collery made to the Cayman Islands in 1998 and which he kept secret from the tribunal.

"The tribunal is satisfied that by the act of placing the documentation he brought back from the Cayman Islands in August 1998 beyond the reach of the tribunal, and into the custody of Ms Keogh, Mr Collery obstructed or hindered the tribunal in the performance of its functions."

Mr Collery's remuneration for his work with the Ansbacher deposits was paid into an Ansbacher account. The tribunal report states that in excess of sterling £576,100 was lodged to the account in the period from 1986 to 1998.

Mr Justice Moriarty, in his report, described Ms Keogh's actions in making the documents available to the tribunal as "correct and courageous" and "worthy of commendation".