The auctioneer, Mr John Finnegan, has received a warning from the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Flood, about his failure to disclose documents relating to his offshore trust. The penalty for failing to comply with a tribunal order is up to two years' imprisonment and/or a £10,000 fine.
Mr Finnegan says he has tried to obtain information from the trust administrators in Jersey, but they have refused to provide him with documentation.
However, Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, said it "beggared belief" that the beneficiary of a trust would be unable to obtain information about his investments in the trust. The evidence showed that Mr Finnegan was "in complete control" of the trust.
Beginning his evidence to the tribunal, Mr Finnegan said the accountant, Mr Des Traynor, set up the Amber Trust on his behalf in the 1970s. He described Mr Traynor as "hands-on" and "a fatherly figure" who dictated what had to be done. "I left it all to him."
Mr Hanratty said Mr Finnegan's assertion that he could not access documents from the trust was "incorrect".
"Do you not believe me?" Mr Finnegan asked.
Mr Hanratty said he didn't want to get into "anything personal". "It beggars belief that anyone who was the settlor of a trust cannot get access to documents from the trust." Mr Justice Flood said he did not believe a well-known businessman would not know how his affairs were being managed.
Mr Hanratty asked the witness if he was a beneficiary of the trust.
"I did not understand that I was," he replied. Asked again, he said: "Not that I'm aware of".
Later, after Mr Hanratty read out definitions of the terms used in trusts, Mr Finnegan agreed that he must be a beneficiary.
Earlier, the tribunal heard that Mr Finnegan held on to the title deeds of a property he owned with Brennan and McGowan in a dispute over the proceeds from its sale.
Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, said Mr Finnegan refused to hand over the deeds of the property at the Plantation, Herbert Street in Dublin, unless he was paid £50,000 due from its sale. Brennan and McGowan bought the property for £40,000 and sold it for £261,000 in the mid-1980s, after getting planning permission for apartments.
Mr Joe McGowan said Mr Finnegan had not invested in the property but he was due the money because he had introduced the property to the two builders. At the time, Mr Finnegan was acting as selling agent on behalf of Herbert Properties, part of the Pembroke Estate. Ultimately, Mr Finnegan agreed to settle for £20,000.
Mr Aidan Walsh, SC, for Mr Ray Burke, said that a "thorough and painstaking" Garda investigation into allegations against Mr Burke in 1974 failed to find evidence to warrant a prosecution.
The investigation was called after a journalist found documents which appeared to link Mr Burke with a £15,000 payment from Dublin Airport Industrial Estates under the heading "Planning". The payment arose from the proposed sale of a property, which had been rezoned. Brennan and McGowan and Mr Burke denied the allegation at the time.
Yesterday, Mr McGowan said Mr Burke had been retained as the selling agent for the property. He assumed the £15,000 figure was arrived at as a percentage of the overall sale price.
When it was pointed out to him that the figure represented 3.71 per cent of the price, he agreed that this was a "not a normal" percentage for an estate agent to apply.
