‘Nobody Has Presented Me With Evidence Of Wrongdoing By Nama’

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From top: Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil this afternoon

This afternoon.

During Leader’s Questions.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams raised Nama’s controversial sale of Project Eagle again with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, calling, again, for a Commission of Investigation into the sale.

From their exchange…

Gerry Adams: “Some of the allegations are shocking. Between May 2010 and November 2013, a member of Nama’s advisory board is alleged to have been charging a fee for advice about Nama. It’s further alleged that the same individual had an unethical working relationship with a senior Nama officer, which gave him access to additional and sensitive commercial information.”

“It is also alleged he was lobbying on behalf of clients to reduce loan repayment demands, and in return he would secure cash payments – so-called ‘fixer fees’ – which were shared with the senior Nama officer.”

“Now when Nama decided to sell its Northern loan book to US vulture fund, Cerberus, this individual was offering to disclose information relating to the value of the loans to a bidder called Pimco. It’s alleged that Pimco discovered that payment of a fixer fee of £15million  was requested. This was to be paid if Pimco were successful. Pimco reported this to Nama and withdrew from the process.”

“According to a Sinn Fein freedom of information request, Minister Noonan was updated by the Nama chairman regarding these transactions and it’s still today unclear why the minister did not intervene to exercise his general powers of direction over Nama to suspend the sale’s process until these matters were fully investigated. Taoiseach, if found to be accurate, these are serious allegations of financial corruption and insider trading in which the taxpayer has suffered a huge loss.”

Later

Enda Kenny: “If you want to give me, if you want to give me evidence of why there should be a Commission of Investigation in this jurisdiction, I’d be quite prepared to listen to it.”

“I’ve got, I hear allegations, rumours and speculation but that’s not the basis for setting up a Commission of Investigation for any particular matter. Minister Noonan dealt with the question of a company that was in a tender position here which was not proceeded with when the question of a fixer’s fee arose.”

“Now if you have other information beyond that deputy, obviously, you know yourself, you bring that to the gardaí. But if you produce evidence to me here in the House, as to why a Commission of Investigation should take place in this jurisdiction, when there are legal cases being pursued in Northern Ireland, in where we would not have jurisdiction in the Commission of Investigation set up here.”

The principal personnel with Nama were in front of the relevant committees here, they gave long and detailed explanations. Nobody has presented me with evidence of wrongdoing by Nama in this jurisdiction and the allegations that you make relate to other areas…”

Previously: ‘Nama Has Done Nothing Wrong’

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13 thoughts on “‘Nobody Has Presented Me With Evidence Of Wrongdoing By Nama’

  1. Bonkers

    ah that old chestnut “bring your claims to the Gardai” by Kenny when he knows full well that his FG government deliberately under resourced the Garda Fraud Squad. If I remember correctly they had a grand total of 9 emploees during a time of unprecedented banking fraud in the system. They’re snowed under and deliberately so. The head of the unit said he needs at least 15 forensic accountants to make any headway. Kenny knows all this yet the stock response is “bring it to the Gardai”. Luckily the FBI and Serious Crime Squad in the UK are no slouches, they’ll get to the bottom of this while Kenny is still waffling in the Dail

  2. 15 cents

    jesus. whenever Kennys spoken words are written down it sounds like someone in a job interview who got asked a question they’ve no idea about and they’re tryin to waffle out of it and desperetely using long words to try sound like they know what theyre talkin about and to take up time while they try think, and ultimately not making any sense. he’s such such… SUCH a plank.

    1. some old queen

      A situation where the British and SF are on the same side and nobody bats an eyelid? Politics is a funny old game sometimes.

      The very idea that this was going on in the north and nobody in Dublin knew anything about it means they were at best, incompetent. This one is going to bite hard and the backlash will be something that makes Irish Water look like a tea party.

  3. John Morrissey

    That’s not true, Enda, as I am sure you know. The Department of Finance, the Central Bank, the Special Liquidators of IBRC and NAMA are fully aware that NAMA has been overcharging interest on the loan book acquired from Anglo Irish Bank (which constitutes the major part of the NAMA portfolio) and that it has continued to do so despite a 2014 ruling of the High Court that such overcharging was illegal. See Pages 39 to 42 of the recent update from KPMG on the IBRC liquidation….

      1. Andy

        Hey John,
        Have you repaid the €31.5mm you borrowed yet?

        I genuinely don’t think you’ll get much sympathy form people about the €100k you were overcharged when you defaulted on over €30mm in debt used to buy a load of investment properties in D6, never mind the €4.7mm you owe NAMA for your PPR.

        High Court Record Number:2011 1548 S & 2011 86 COM
        http://www.courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/0/9F19A26456ABF50780257D950044D53D

        [FINAL JUDGMENT IN INTEREST OVERCHARGE CASE]
        “Decision
        92. The Court’s decision is that in accordance with this judgment, for the purposes of the final determination of these proceedings in the High Court, the amount due on the facilities advanced by the plaintiff to the defendant as of 3rd June 2014 is €31,542,125.93 (i.e. €31,685,802.97 – €143,676.64).”

        Case listing his loan with NAMA for his PPR
        High Court Record Number: 2014 2799 P
        http://www.courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/0/FF6CFCD3D4E9444580257D110054787A

        1. John Morrissey

          Andy, as you can see if you dig a little deeper, the judgment you refer to is listed for appeal in February 2017. The issue of fraud (and other relevant matters) has not been addressed to date.

  4. Kevin M

    Why don’t Gerry or Mick Wallace reach out to the English crowd that are investigating project Eagle? or the SEC in the states? If they are investigating NAMA, they have some evidence and I suspect would want cooperation with Irish officials.

    1. John Morrissey

      That will happen in due course. The above-mentioned parties, and their legal and accounting advisors, principally KPMG, Arthur Cox and A&L Goodbody, have been accorded ample opportunity to sort out the various interest-overcharging frauds and have instead adopted the “head in the sand” approach. That they have done so on US loans, in particular, is quite extraordinary given the dim view of such matters taken across the water.

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