A senior AIB official yesterday contradicted Mr Michael Lowry's version of the circumstances in which he was able to open an offshore account through the bank's O'Connell Street branch.
Mr Liam O'Connell, branch assistant manager at the time, told the tribunal he could recall Mr Michael Lowry visiting O'Connell Street in January 1991 with a group of financial consultants.
However, Mr Lowry told the tribunal he had never visited any AIB branch with any financial consultant, and his recollection was that he visited O'Connell Street on his own.
Mr Lowry said that on January 24th, 1991, he purchased a sterling draft for £55,000 from AIB O'Connell Street. The draft was lodged in a term deposit account in AIB Channel Islands.
He had never had any dealings with the O'Connell Street branch until that day, and was directed there by staff at Dame Street, who said he could not make the Channel Islands deposit from their branch. As far as he was aware, he had never held an account in O'Connell Street nor had he used the account of any existing customer of the branch.
While Mr O'Connell said that "insofar as he could recollect" he had been "involved in the opening of an account for Mr Lowry", he agreed with counsel for the tribunal that "no account of Mr Lowry's has ever been found in O'Connell Street".
His recollection was that the TD was introduced to him by a representative of J.C. Financial Management Ltd as "a person who would be doing business with them and perhaps with us".
He was not introduced "as a TD nor as an existing AIB client". Mr O'Connell described the meeting as a "hello-goodbye affair with the financial consultants indicating there would be business conducted on his behalf".
Mr O'Connell signed a memorandum on January 14th, 1991, addressed to the manager of the Channel Islands branch, which requested him to deposit Mr Lowry's £55,000 sterling draft at an annual interest rate of just over 13 per cent.
He confirmed that Mr Lowry would have needed exchange control clearance before making such a transfer to an account at AIB's Channel Islands branch.
The tribunal was shown the application form covering the transaction, parts of which were incomplete. Specifically, details about the source of funds had not been filled in.
Mr O'Connell said it appeared on face value that no exchange control had been obtained. He stressed that while his branch did not do a lot of business with the Channel Islands branch, he would always have ensured the exchange control regulations were complied with.
In his evidence Mr Lowry said he had no recollection whatsoever of anyone from AIB discussing exchange controls with him. He also said he procured the £55,000 draft without any money, or corresponding draft, changing hands. Mr O'Connell said, however, this would have been very strange.
Mr Lowry's deposit matured in July 1991 at which stage it had appreciated to £58,337.28 sterling. This sum along with a £34,100 sterling draft he purchased with the proceeds of a cheque drawn by Dunnes Stores Northern Ireland and a further draft of £7,562.72 sterling allowed the TD to lodge a total of £100,000 sterling with AIB in the Channel Islands on September 3rd, 1991.
There was a gap of a couple of months between when the £55,000 deposit matured and the £100,000 was lodged in the Channel Islands. To his knowledge, he did not receive a cheque or a bank draft for the mature figure of £58,337.28 in the interim. He believed "it went through the banking system" and "was maintained internally in the AIB system".
"The most I could say about it is that I invested it with AIB and I believed that it was within the AIB system whatever account", Mr Lowry said. He added that he would have expected the deposit to mature and "roll over". Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said the sum had not "rolled over", and both Mr Lowry's accountant and the tribunal had been puzzled as to where it might have been between July and September of that year.
Mr Coughlan asked: "Can we establish one thing? You didn't have it."
Mr Lowry replied: "No."