From top: Former Northern Ireland Finance Minister Sammy Wilson and his pick for Nama’s Northern Ireland Advisory Committee, Frank Cushnahan
You may recall Nama’s sale of its northern Ireland property portfolio Project Eagle to US investment firm, Cerebrus.
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General is expected to be published tomorrow and it has been reported that it has found the portfolio may have been undersold to the tune of hundreds of millions because of “shortcomings” and “irregularities” in the sale.
Last week’s BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme broadcast a secret audio recording of Frank Cushnahan, then a member of Nama’s Northern Ireland Advisory Committee, receiving £40,000 – in bundles of two – from property developer John Miskelly.
Readers may recall that, in 2009, Mr Cushnahan was chosen to sit on Nama’s Northern Ireland Advisory Committee by former Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister, from 2009 to 2013, Sammy Wilson.
Further to this, Allison Morris, in the Irish News, reports:
Former finance minister Sammy Wilson said he has “no intention” of watching a BBC Spotlight investigation that aired secret recordings of a man he recommended for the Nama advisory committee taking £40,000 in cash from a property developer.
Mr Wilson was on holiday when the programme aired last week, when allegations of corruption were made against his close friend Frank Cushnahan.
However, speaking to the Irish News on Monday, he said: “I haven’t and I’ve no intention of watching anything Spotlight produce, I think they’re a bunch of biased bigots”.
Sammy Wilson calls BBC ‘biased bigots’ in Nama scandal fallout (The Irish News)
Previously: Spotlight Falls On Noonan
Very Cushy To Be Frank
Pic: Irish News