Keating denies €220,000 is linked to crime

A former lord mayor of Dublin, PD deputy leader, Fine Gael TD and minister of State, Mr Michael Keating has said his €220,000 settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau was not the proceeds of crime.

In a Prime Time interview on RTÉ 1 last night, his first since his settlement with CAB last February, Mr Keating said that the payment he made was in no way an admission of guilt, but that he could no longer cope with "vile vilification and character assassination".

The settlement was made "without any admission of guilt whatsoever and without any charge being brought forward". It was, he said, an agreed solution on both sides. "It settles the issues once and for all where the authorities involved felt I had, apparently, a tax bill." He denied that it was a tax on criminal assets. "That is not the case. I absolutely repudiate that," Mr Keating said.

He had felt unable to continue to battle to clear his name, so he had made the "pragmatic" decision to settle. "I could not financially afford those years of fighting in the High Courts." The terms of the settlement were difficult for him personally, he said, "but at least it has allowed me to close that chapter. It has been a very scarring chapter and a very traumatic period for myself, my family and friends."

When asked why he thought he had been pursued by CAB, he said he did not know "the full answer to that", but it was maybe "a lack of discernment on my part after I left politics and became, perhaps, involved in business with people."

In reference to his alleged associations with the criminal George Mitchell, also known as "The Penguin", he said he had "never met, spoken to or had any dealings whatsoever with anyone by the name of Mr Mitchell".

He admitted an association with a convicted fraudster, Peter Bolger, but said that "guilt by association was a very dangerous principle".

Mr Keating said the tax laws put the onus on innocent people to clear their names. This caused mistakes to be made. When asked if his own case was a mistake, he replied: "I believe it is."

He said he had been the subject of incredible lies, but added: "If I have transgressed in some way, God knows I've paid for it."