MR JOHN Furze, the Cayman Islands banker believed to be named in bank accounts into which Mr Ben Dunne paid money, says he has never met Mr Duane, nor would he know him "if I tripped over him".
Mr Furze also said that to his knowledge no money had ever passed through his bank accounts destined for a Fianna Fail politician. Mr Dunne, in an affidavit, is understood to have alleged that £1.1 million was paid into a series of accounts, some of which were in Mr Furze's name, and that the beneficiary was a Fianna Fail politician.
Mr Furze helped the late Irish businessman, Mr Des Traynor, to set up the Guinness & Mahon operation in the Cayman Islands in the 1970s. He told The Irish Times yesterday that he did not hold money in bank accounts on behalf of other people. He also said it was unlikely that an account would be opened in his name without his knowledge.
"The laws on this are very stringent, and a person needs ample proof of identity before an account can be opened," he said. Mr Dunne is understood to have alleged in his affidavit that the money was paid into a series of accounts in a London bank in the name of "John Furze" in the early 1990s. Mr Furze says that he never operated accounts on behalf of Mr Dunne, or any Fianna Fail politician.
The Guinness & Mahon operation in the Caymans was purchased in 1988 by Ansbacher, and Mr Furze worked there until last year. He said that it would not have been Ansbacher policy either to set up accounts in staff's names, on behalf of clients. He said he had no links with Fianna Fail.
Mr Furze said he was surprised to hear that his name was mentioned in Mr Dunne's affidavit. "In a way it makes me angry," he said, "but you learn all sorts of things in this business." Pressed as to whether it was possible that accounts were opened in his name, without his knowledge, he said:
"Anything is possible".
Mr Furze said that under its strict confidentiality law he was limited as to what he could say. He could not confirm, for example, whether he had - or had ever had - specific bank accounts in his own name in London or the Cayman Islands.