Telenor, the company which bid with Mr Denis O'Brien's Communicorp for the second GSM licence, has claimed that a £4,000 donation to Fine Gael was drawn down from the Esat joint-bank account under "false and misleading pretences".
The accusation was made by lawyers for the company after it was drawn to their attention that Telenor executive Mr Hans Myre had signed the cheque on the Esat Telenor Joint Venture (JV) account on October 6th, 1995.
In a statement to the tribunal, Mr Myre said he was "shocked and upset" to find his signature on the cheque, which was paid to Fine Gael in the form of a contribution to a golf classic at the K Club.
Mr Myre said he only became aware of the donation last month, and that it was the first time he had heard of drawings on the account made for the purpose of political donations.
The use of funds from the account for this purpose "was done without any knowledge or consent", he said.
The cheque, made payable to Bank of Ireland, was used to purchase a bank draft to Fine Gael.
This was sent to Fine Gael TD Mr Phil Hogan on October 9th by Ms Sarah Carey, marketing co-ordinator of Esat, a week before the golf classic.
Ms Carey wrote: "I understand Denis has requested that there are no references made to his contribution at the event."
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said the cheque, in the amount of £4,001.75, had been attributed in the JV account books as "bid production".
He noted he had written to Mr O'Brien's solicitors for an explanation in light of the accusation of "misrepresentation", and they replied that nowhere in Mr Myre's statement was such an accusation made.
They also said the tribunal should establish who instructed Telenor's lawyers to make the accusation, and in the absence of finding out whom, no reference or credence should be given to the claim.
Mr O'Brien said he had no knowledge as to why the cheque was used to purchase a bank draft. But he said it was put in the books as payable to Fine Gael and those books had been open to Telenor to examine.
The JV account had been set up in May/June 1995 to cover business expenses with equal contributions from Telenor and Esat.
A signature from each company was necessary before a withdrawal could be made.
Mr Coughlan said the tribunal became aware of the payment following the receipt of documents from British Telecom, which purchased Esat after Mr O'Brien's company was awarded the licence.
Last October, the tribunal wrote to Fine Gael asking for details of it, and another apparent payment of £600 from Esat to Fine Gael on October 2nd, 1995.
Fine Gael replied to say the latter payment had not been picked up in its earlier examination of documents as it was made at a fundraising event.
Payments at such events are classified as "sundry income" rather than "subscriptions received" in the party accounts.
Fine Gael subsequently carried out a review of sundry income and found Esat had made additional payments of £4,000 in 1995, £3,000 in 1996, £3,000 in 1997, £1,500 in 1998, £500 in 1999, and £500 in 2000.
