DÁIL ÉIREANN'S Public Accounts Committee is investigating a property sale by the Irish Government's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) amidst allegations by Mick Wallace TD (Independent) of a pay-off in the deal.
The PSNI are also investigating the business transaction.
NAMA, which was set up in 2009 to deal with Ireland’s debt mountain, was given the legal right to acquire every single land and development loan from Irish banks. For a period it became the largest property bank in the world, owning sites such as Battersea power station.
The agency has now become embroiled in controversy with regards its sale last year of its North of Ireland portfolio.
Some 850 assets from the loans of the North's debtors were sold in one lot for over €1.5billion to New York firm Cerberus Capital Management.
But in the Dáil, Mick Wallace claimed the assets were in reality worth €4.5billion, and that, as part of the deal, a £7million payment was made into an Isle of Man account, allegedly destined for a North of Ireland politician or party.
The Isle of Man account was allegedly in the control of solicitor Ian Coulter, then a partner at Tughans law firm in Belfast. Mr Coulter subsequently left Tughans and the money was retrieved by the firm.
Cerberus have said they were represented by the US firm Brown Rudnick, who in turn instructed Tughans.
NAMA chairman Frank Daly has told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee the agency had no knowledge of this alleged payment. He told the PAC hearing: “If a payment did find its way to an account in the Isle of Man, as has been alleged, then wherever such a payment came from, it most certainly did not come from NAMA.
“In fact NAMA had no knowledge of this alleged payment to Mr Coulter by Brown Rudnick until recent days when it was put in the public domain.”
NAMA chief executive Brendan McDonagh defended the value for which the loans were sold.
“I believe that the commercial decision taken by the NAMA board to dispose of the Northern Ireland loan portfolio was the right one,” he told TDs.
He insisted the sale was “conducted in line with best international practice”.
Earlier, the agency released a statement saying: "NAMA sold the assets for exactly what they were worth and not a cent less."
The statement added: "The assets may - years earlier - have been worth more but the fall in their value was a result of the property crash and they were not worth anything more that the price NAMA achieved when sold by NAMA."
The PSNI has launched a criminal inquiry into the affair. Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr said: "We believe that there is sufficient concern in relation to potential criminal activity, surrounding this property deal, to instigate an investigation.
"PSNI are now engaging with a number of other national and international law enforcement partners to consider how best to take forward this investigation."
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