O'Brien `furious' when told his name was linked to Lowry loan

Mr Denis O'Brien was "furious" when told last March that his name had been linked to a £420,000 sterling loan to a company of which Mr Michael Lowry was a director, the tribunal heard.

Mr Michael Cullen, a senior executive with GE Capital Woodchester, now known as Investec, said Mr O'Brien telephoned him on March 14th and said he was annoyed that his name was being mentioned in relation to a transaction with which he had no involvement. The bank had already been in contact with the Central Bank about the matter and was preparing to approach the Moriarty tribunal. Mr O'Brien had learned about this a day earlier.

The bank approached the Central Bank on March 12th. The following day Mr Cullen contacted a former executive, Mr Michael Tunney, who had negotiated the December 1999 loan with Mr Aidan Phelan, an accountant and financial adviser to Mr O'Brien.

Mr Tunney was on a skiing holiday in the French Alps with Mr O'Brien. Following the telephone call, Mr Tunney told Mr O'Brien the bank was considering going to the Moriarty tribunal with its concerns about the £420,000 loan.

Mr Cullen, in a second conversation later that day, was told by Mr Tunney that Mr O'Brien had been "furious". Mr Cullen told Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, he believed Mr O'Brien had just been made aware of the matter for the first time.

The bank was concerned about its reputation after it discovered that the loan it had been told by Mr Phelan was linked to Mr O'Brien had gone to a company of which Mr Lowry was a director.

On March 13th, an executive of the bank sent a fax to a colleague at 11.30 p.m. He used his home fax because he "didn't trust his own shadow". The bank was considering going to "the big M", a reference to the tribunal.

Eventually, at the urging of the bank, it and Mr Phelan made a joint approach to the tribunal.

At a meeting last February 28th, Mr Phelan told Mr Cullen and his colleague, Mr Tony Morland, that the bank had nothing to worry about in relation to the loan "as this was a Denis O'Brien transaction".

According to a note of a telephone call on March 8th, Mr Tunney told an executive "we should not worry about the credit as Denis is behind" the loan.

Mr Cullen agreed with Mr Healy when he said the bank had been given a facility letter at the time the loan was issued "by two people purporting to be directors of a company of which they were not directors". Mr Cullen said the bank was not aware of this at the time.

Mr Healy was referring to Catclause Ltd, the company the bank believed was owned by Mr Phelan and about the affairs of which it had received documents signed by Mr Phelan and his associate, Ms Helen Malone. Mr Lowry and his daughter, Ms Lorraine Lowry, were the directors of the company.

The bank also discovered after it had issued the loan that Catclause had not bought the Cheadle property for which the loan was issued and that the property was instead registered in the names of solicitors Mr Christopher and Ms Deborah Vaughan. Mr Vaughan had been solicitor to Catclause.

Mr Vaughan, who lives in Northampton, has indicated to the tribunal that he will not be giving evidence. He told the bank in correspondence that he and his wife held the property in trust for Mr Phelan.

Mr Healy said the tribunal has been informed that there was a trust deed. "Maybe there was one once containing information someone doesn't want the tribunal to see," he said.

When the bank complained to Mr Phelan that it was having difficulty getting information from Mr Vaughan, Mr Phelan said the solicitor acted for him and Mr O'Brien in relation to property transactions in Britain and was under instruction not to release information unless told by them to do so.

Mr Cullen said Mr Phelan repaid the loan on March 21st.