Ansbacher inspectors found old Guinness clan trusts

A range of trusts managed by Guinness & Mahon bank and a number of offshore subsidiaries were discovered by the Ansbacher inspectors but not detailed in their report.

The report indicates that these trusts include old high asset value trusts belonging to members of the Guinness family.

It is likely that details of some of these trusts will become known to the Revenue Commissioners by way of ongoing inquiries into Guinness & Mahon and one of its offshore subsidiaries, College Trustees, by an authorised officer, Mr Gerry Ryan. It is not known if the trusts will be found to have any tax liabilities.

Some people who did place funds with College Trustees have been named in the inspectors' report.

This is because for a period money coming from College Trustees was routed through the Cayman Islands bank when coming to Guinness & Mahon, Dublin. This occurred during the period 1981 to 1989 and without the clients' knowing that this link was being created with Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust (GMCT), or Ansbacher Cayman as it was later called.

According to the report, Guinness & Mahon in 1974 "had a number of old trusts in Dublin, which wished to move residence at that time in order to avoid Capital Gains Tax.

"There were also in the region of 30 trusts established in the Channel Islands which did not have any effective system of administration, the company which was to have administered them, Guinness Mahon Channel Islands Ltd (GMCI), having relinquished its banking licence due to a review on costs grounds. A small number of old high asset Dublin trusts related to the Guinness family."

The Dublin bank became acquainted with Mr John Lipscombe of Sovereign Management Ltd, Guernsey.

As a result a subsidiary of GMCI, College Trustees, was established. College Trustees rented office space from Sovereign and contracted it to supply management services for the trusts. College Trustees then became trustee to all the old Dublin trusts, of which there was something in the region of six to 10, according to the report.

By the late 1970s, according to the report, Mr Lipscombe was dealing directly with about 50 Irish clients of College Trustees "and very few new clients appeared after the end of the 1970s". The inspectors also revealed in their report that G&M used the words "suitably secured" when indicating loans it issued which were backed by deposits in "any of its subsidiaries outside the jurisdiction - including, for example, its Belfast subsidiary".

Cash-backed loans were issued to Ansbacher clients by the late Mr Des Traynor as a way of releasing offshore money to Irish resident clients without bringing the attention of the Revenue to the offshore money. The inspectors' report indicates that deposits in a range of G&M subsidiaries were being used in this way. The Guinness Mahon group had businesses in New York and Zurich as well as the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, London and Belfast.

After the publication of the McCracken Report in 1997 the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, appointed Mr Ryan as an authorised officer under the Companies Act 1990 to inquire into Guinness & Mahon. He was subsequently appointed to inquire into College Trustees, of Guernsey, and Kentford Securities Ltd, an Irish company.

The latter was a company used by the late Mr Traynor to open accounts in Dublin banks which he used in the early 1990s for the movement of money between offshore accounts and Irish residents who owned the money in the offshore accounts.

More details on the Ansbacher Report at: www.ireland.com/focus/ansbacher