Ex-FF fundraiser on defaulter list

Fianna Fail’s fund-raiser during the Ahern years, Des Richardson, has made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners as has a company he used for billing the party for his services.

Mr Richardson, with an address in Ballsbridge, Dublin, appears on a quarterly list of tax defaulters published in Iris Oifigiuil today.

Described in the list as a business management consultant, Mr Richardson made a settlement of €108,906, of which €51,529 was interest and €19,126 was penalties.

The settlement is described as arising from the underdeclaration of income tax and capital gains tax and is described as having been discovered as a result of a Revenue investigation.

Mr Richardson’s now dissolved company, Willdover Ltd, with an address at City Quay, Dublin, made a €141,094 settlement of which €80,528 was interest and €20,189 was penalties. The settlement arose from the underdeclaration of VAT and PAYE/PRSI and was discovered as a result of a revenue investigation.

Mr Richardson could not be reached for comment today.

He was a trustee of St Luke’s, Drumcondra, the building purchased for the use of Bertie Ahern in the late 1980s and which was used extensively by him during the years when he served as Taoiseach.

A long time fund-raiser for Mr Ahern’s personal political operation, Mr Richardson was involved in organising annual fund-raising dinners in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.

After Mr Ahern was appointed Fianna Fail’s treasurer in the early 1990s, Mr Richardson took on the special role of seeking to pay off the party’s substantial debt. He set up an office in the Berkeley Hotel, in Ballsbridge, and operated independently of the party HQ on Mount Street, Dublin.

During the Mahon Tribunal’s inquiries into the finances of Mr Ahern, it emerged that Mr Richardson was also involved in soliciting money for Mr Ahern personally.

Mr Richardson used Willdover to invoice the party for the fees he charged it for his fund-raising activities. He told the tribunal in 2007 that the company was not registered for VAT as he had not believed it was “vatable”.

The tribunal was told that total turnover through the company over a period of years was £382,000, of which £137,000 was from Fianna Fáil.

The tribunal heard that Willdover was overdrawn on December 22nd, 1993, when a cheque of that date from Fianna Fáil and signed by Bertie Ahern, was lodged to the account.

On the same day Mr Richardson wrote out a cheque to cash on the account, which was given to Mr Ahern personally. Mr Richardson told the tribunal there was no connection between the two payments.