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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
1 0 July 2016
NEWS
T
he charging of another former NAMA
official with the leaking of confiden-
tial information has added to the
already significant pressure on the
agency’s chairman and chief execu-
tive and on finance minister, Michael Noonan,
to concede an independent inquiry into its
activities.
Paul Pugh (56), from Clontarf Road in Dublin,
is charged with disclosing confidential informa-
tion contrary to Section 7 of the 2009 National
Assets Management Agency Act. Detective Gar-
rett Lynch of the Garda Bureau of Fraud
Investigation told the District Court that Pugh
provided information about McCabe Builders
(UK) Ltd to a named individual at Connaught
and Whitehall Capital UK Ltd in June 2012.
John McCabe was one of Ireland’s top-rung
developers until he crashed with debts of more
than €230 million in loans and guarantees
being taken over by NAMA. McCabe built the
Abington development for the rich and famous
in Malahide, in north Dublin. His wife Mary hit
the headlines in February 2013 after a receiver
was appointed over her €150,000, 8.5 carat
‘Brussels sprout’ sized diamond ring and other
jewellery when she failed to discharge some
€20m in judgments obtained by the agency.
NAMA claimed that Mary McCabe with an
address at Rath Stud, Ashbourne, County
Meath owes it the proceeds from the sale of a
€20m property in Park Lane in 2012.
John McCabe previously featured as a
member of the Maple 10, one of the ten custom-
ers of Anglo Irish Bank who purchased a 10%
stake in the bank from Sean Quinn in 2008 in a
desperate attempt to save the rapidly collaps-
ing institution.
Paul Pugh is now accused of leaking informa-
tion about McCabes’ distressed assets while he
worked with NAMA. On the day of his arrest on
Thursday 23rd June, Wexford TD, Mick Wallace
told the Dáil that Pugh was “an individual who
came onto our radar long before now”.
Pugh is currently listed as a director of Con-
naught and Whitehall Capital Ltd. (not the UK
entity named above) with an address at Santry
in north Dublin, along with Swiss-based Irish
businessman, Michael Maye.
His arrest follows the conviction of another
former NAMA employee, Enda Farrell, who
recently received a two-year suspended sen-
tence after pleading guilty to a number of
similar offences of passing confidential infor-
mation from NAMA to external interests.
While these incidents have been embarrass-
ing for NAMA chairman Frank Daly and chief
executive Brendan McDonagh they are in the
halfpenny place compared to intensifying con-
troversy over the 2014 sale of the agency’s
Northern Ireland loan book, Project Eagle.
Only an extraordinary U-turn by Fianna Fáil
saved the government, and Noonan in particu-
lar, from acute discomfort when a motion by
Wallace calling for a Commission of Inquiry into
the Project Eagle purchase and sale was
defeated in the Dáil on 29th June last.
Only days earlier, Wallace had been person-
ally assured by Micheál Martin, of his party’s
support for the motion, not surprising since it
was almost word for word identical to one
unsuccessfully put by Fianna Fáil before the
house last November.
Clearly, the unwritten or at least unpublished
agreement between the two largest parties pre-
cludes supporting dangerous motions which
might force Noonan to explain why he author-
ised NAMA to proceed with the €1.241 billion
sale to US fund Cerberus despite information
that the tender process had been compromised
by “fee arrangements” involving key players
connected to the agency in Northern Ireland.
In early 2014, Noonan was informed that
another US fund, Pimco, had disclosed to NAMA
that it had agreed to make payments totalling
€15 million to a number of people who assisted
it during the tender process including Frank
Cushnahan a former member of the agency’s
Northern Ireland Advisory Committee (NIAC).
It subsequently emerged that Stg£7m had
Wall aces it
again on Nama
Intrepid Wexford TD alleges Nama advisor,
Cushnahan, was paid £5m by Cerberus for
confidential information
by Frank Connolly
What in God’s name would
Cushnahan be disposing
of if there was nothing
to dispose of? Why was
he entitled to £5 million
if he had no confidential
information about the
quality of the properties? It
does not stack up
July 2016 1 1
been lodged in relation to the Cerberus deal by
solicitor Ian Coulter then a partner of Belfast
firm, Tughans, in an Isle of Man account. At
least some of it was intended to go to a senior
politician or party in Northern Ireland. Cushna-
han was to receive some £5m from the deal.
Cushnahan also operated out of the Tughans’
offices in Belfast city centre.
As reported in Village over recent months,
this sensational revelation, first made by Wal-
lace in the Dáil in June 2015, contributed to the
decision of Peter Robinson to announce his res-
ignation as first minister and leader of the DUP
last Autumn. Gareth Robinson, son of the
former DUP leader has also been implicated in
the affair.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams made a com-
plaint to the New York state comptroller who
called in Cerberus to answer questions about
the claims of side-payments linked to the sale.
Since then Cushnahan and Ronnie Hanna, the
former head of asset recovery at NAMA in
Dublin, have been arrested and put on police
bail after their arrest in Northern Ireland as part
of the investigation by the British National
Crime Agency into the purchase of Project
Eagle. Investigations by the Securities and
Exchange Commission of the US Department of
Justice and the Law Society in Belfast are also
underway. Hanna resigned from NAMA in late
2014, six months after the sale to Cerberus, and
returned to Belfast where he was previously an
executive with Ulster Bank.
The new Northern Ireland finance minister,
Máirtín O’Muilleoir, has also provided fresh
information to the Stormont finance committee
about the role of one of his predecessors in the
affair. Former DUP finance minister, Sammy
Wilson, nominated Cushnahan for the NIAC job
and, according to the latest information pro-
vided by O’Muilleoir, also proposed that former
Anglo Irish Bank official, Neil Adair be
appointed. At the time, Adair was registered as
a shareholder of PBN Holdings, one of Nama's
largest debtors in Northern Ireland. Adair has
claimed that he was unaware until late 2015 that
he had been nominated for the role on the
NAMA advisory committee.
During the debate on the Dáil motion in late
June, Wallace repeated his claim that Hanna
met senior Cerberus executives on the eve of
the tender being awarded, in early 2014. Pimco
had withdrawn over the fee-payments contro-
versy and only US fund Fortress was left in the
race with Cerberus. However, it had to write to
the Department of the Taoiseach just to get into
the race.
“Cerberus bid £1.241 billion. The reserve
price was £1.24 billion. Fortress bid £1.1 billion.
… It was not a competitive tendering process by
any stretch of the imagination”, Wallace said.
He claims that Cerberus bid just above the
reserve price of £1.24 billion for a portfolio of
850 properties that was probably worth €1.7
billion at 2014 prices. He disputed a claim by
NAMA that Cushnahan had no access to confi-
dential information about the bidding process
and the quality and potential values of the prop-
erties on sale.
“If so, why after Frank Cushnahan resigned
in 2013 did NAMA insist that all his confidential
files at Tughans had been destroyed? Brian
Rowntree who was also on the Northern Ireland
Advisory Committee, contradicts NAMA on this
stating that it was privy to confidential informa-
tion. In his reply to NAMA Frank Cushnahan
said, ‘I am returning herewith as requested the
enclosed letter confirming that all documenta-
tion has been securely disposed of’. What in
God’s name would he be disposing of if there
was nothing to dispose of? Why was he entitled
to £5 million if he had no confidential informa-
tion? It does not stack up”,
The Wallace motion was supported by some
39 TDs including Sinn Féin, People before
Profit/AAA and several left-wing independents.
Fianna Fáil supported the government.
Stg£7m had been lodged
in relation to the Cerberus
deal by solicitor Ian
Coulter, in an Isle of Man
account. At least some of
it was intended to go to a
senior politician or party
in Northern Ireland.
Eagle-Vulture
