Moriarty Tribunal the sequel….

[toxic avenger]

Perhaps a Dunlop-style FBI test might be able to date the alleged decoy letters?...

[toxic avenger]

Now this is very interesting...

His solicitor in England, Christopher Vaughan, said he was mistaken when he referred to Mr Lowry as being involved in the deal in a letter he wrote to Irish businessman Kevin Phelan.
Mr Lowry paid Mr Phelan a total of £65,000 sterling in early 2002.
However, Mr Lowry says the money was legitimate fees and expenses concerning a property deal in Wigan.
In October 2002, Mr Vaughan was recorded as telling another solicitor that Mr Phelan had been paid off and described him as a total crook.
He told the other solicitor Kate Macmillan that Mr Phelan orchestrates everything and tells different things to different people.
The other solicitor Kate Macmillan was acting for Denis O'Brien senior who had made a police complaint alleging he was being blackmailed by the owners of Doncaster Rovers.

RTÉ News: Tribunal hears of alleged blackmail


The phrase 'nest of vipers' springs immediately to mind..

[stanley]

Yes this looks like the rabbit out of the hat, Lowry is out of the traps like a rocket today denying the payment was a bribe, it would be some stroke by Moriarty if from the two un-named witnesses next week one of them turned out to be Kevin Phelan.

DO'B is managing to look like he was keeping his distance and if there was a bribe it was of Lowry's own making but DO'B Snr is right in the thick of this and the Eng solicitors are backstabbing each other, Moriarty is playing a stormer.

[toxic avenger]

The only problem is you're not allowed to pull surprises at Tribunals, you have to circulate statements etc. in advance. For that reason I doubt it will be Phelan, and even if it was, they'd demand a stay on constitutional grounds, or a judicial review. But those letters weren't 'mistakes', which then leads to the blackmail question. It has piqued my interest, certainly. I wonder if there is any way of proving it, rather than it getting stuck at the 'he says, she says' stage...

[stanley]

PAUL CULLENBUSINESSMAN DENIS O’Brien and former minister for communications Michael Lowry have claimed a newly revealed document exonerates their behaviour in relation to the awarding of the second mobile phone licence.

Both men are also claiming the document, a confidential memo furnished to the Department of Communications a week before the licence was awarded in 1996, undermines the preliminary findings of the Moriarty tribunal in relation to them.

Separately, they have called on the tribunal to investigate the issues raised by the memo, written by Richard Nesbitt SC, and the circumstances in which it remained hidden for more than a decade. Any inquiry is likely to lengthen the life of the tribunal even further.

Mr O’Brien said yesterday that Mr Nesbitt’s legal advice, which was circulated by the tribunal earlier this month, “fundamentally and comprehensively rubbishes” the claim of political interference in the awarding of the State’s second mobile phone licence to his consortium. He called on the tribunal to withdraw its preliminary findings to take account of the document, a confidential memo furnished to the department in May 1996, or else investigate the issues raised by it.

Mr Lowry said it destroyed the tribunal’s case against him by showing there was no improper behaviour in relation to the award of the licence.

The memo came to light after Minister for Communications Éamon Ryan told the tribunal his department was withdrawing a claim of privilege over the legal advice it contained.




I think this is a ball of smoke from the lads and they want the Tribunal to drag on but it is also very convenient for the civil servants who have been criticised in the prelim report.

[stanley]

Perhaps a Dunlop-style FBI test might be able to date the alleged decoy letters?...

Would think the Govt shut the FBI door after the FD diaries, national interest or some shlte like that.

[Odyessus]

By Sam Smyth, Irish Independent


Friday April 24 2009

The Moriarty Tribunal moved closer to the heart of the matter yesterday when solicitor Christopher Vaughan gave evidence for the third day.

For nearly five hours the property solicitor vehemently denied allegations that he had altered copies of his letters on file. An agent had accused him of keeping two copies of his correspondence: a false set for the tribunal and another true file.

Kevin Phelan, an agent retained by former minister Michael Lowry and businessman Denis O'Brien, accused Mr Vaughan of altering five letters submitted to the tribunal.

Mr Vaughan was retained to act for Mr Lowry and Mr O'Brien when they purchased property in England that Mr Phelan had identified for them.

Mr Phelan, from Omagh, Co Tyrone, also informed Mr Vaughan that he was making a very serious complaint about him to his professional body.

However, within weeks, Mr Phelan's solicitor wrote to Mr Vaughan telling him he was withdrawing all the allegations following a meeting in Dublin.

Tactic

Mr Vaughan told the tribunal yesterday that Mr Phelan's accusations were "a negotiating tactic" and he had earlier described the Tyrone land agent as "an extremely excitable person" who could get "extremely cross".




Digout, This particular solicitor is been accused of keeping 2 different copies of correspondence, the Tribunal is getting well stuck into him and you would have to think they have not pulled the rabbit from the hat yet.

What is this gibberish supposed to mean? "Moving closer to the heart of the matter."

Utter nonsense. What you mean Sam is: "I heard several people say different things, but I have no idea what they were talking about, who they were, or the significance or otherwise of what they said."

Neither does the the editor.

[stanley]

The "heart of the matter" is establishing if DO'B gave monies to Lowry and in return if Lowry helped to ensure DO'B won the second mobile phone license.