MR JOHN Furze, the Cayman Islands banker, whose name has been linked to payments of £1.1 million made by Mr Ben Dunne to bank accounts in London, has not "dismissed the possibility that someone else could have used his name to carry out the transactions.
Asked if somebody could have used his name for the accounts into which the money was paid, he replied that he supposed anything was possible. The money is alleged, in an affidavit sworn by Mr Duane, to have ultimately benefited a senior Fianna Fail politician.
Mr Furze, who is now retired from banking, set up a Guinness & Mahon operation on the Cayman Islands, along with the late Irish businessman, Mr Des Traynor, who was then a director of the merchant bank.
Mr Furze's business partner at the time, Mr John Collins, told The Irish Times that he knew nothing about the allegations concerning the bank accounts in Mr Furze's name. "I don't want to comment," he said, "I know, nothing at all about it."
Mr Collins, who like Mr Furze lives on Grand Cayman, said he had, never met Mr Dunne and had never heard of the Fianna Fail politician to whom payments were allegedly made.