Nama property sale: Mick Wallace 'not certain' of politician's identity

Nama sold its Northern Ireland property portfolio to US investment firm Cerberus last year

The Irish TD who claimed a Northern Ireland politician stood to benefit from the sale of Nama's Northern Ireland property loan portfolio said he is not fully certain of their identity.

Mick Wallace's allegations have led to calls on both sides of the border for independent inquiries.

The BBC found £7m in an Isle of Man bank account was intended to facilitate payments to non-lawyers or deal fixers.

New York firm Cerberus is "deeply concerned" by the allegations.

The Nama deal is to be discussed by the Northern Ireland Assembly's Finance Committee on Tuesday morning.

Deputy Chair of the Finance Committee, Dominic Bradley, told Radio Ulster: "The committee will want to look at the role of Tughans law firm and they will also want to examine the £7m fee, and if any others were set to benefit from that and for what reasons?

"Also, was there a politician involved? And I expect the committee will want to find out why the police were not involved at an earlier stage, and why they still have not been involved."

On Sunday, Mr Wallace told Irish state broadcaster RTÉ that he had more information, but wanted to be absolutely sure about its validity before releasing it.

"I could have named the politician that was speculated was ear-marked for the £7m, but because I wasn't 100% certain, I didn't use his name in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) because if I was wrong then I would have done him a serious injustice," he said.

The money was in an account controlled by Ian Coulter, a former managing partner at Belfast law firm Tughans.

He left the company in January after it found out and retrieved the cash.

It had been received from a US law firm for work Tughans did on behalf of New York investment firm Cerberus, who bought an 850-property loan portfolio from Nama for more than £1bn last April.

The Law Society of Northern Ireland has been unable to establish what work was carried out by Tughans to earn millions of pounds in fees, sources have told the BBC

Stormont's finance committee intends to hold urgent sessions, prompted largely by last week's allegation in the Irish parliament by independent politician Mr Wallace that money was "reportedly earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician".

Cerberus has said "no improper or illegal fees were paid by us or on our behalf".

In a statement, they said they were "meticulous" in business and did not tolerate "inappropriate actions such as the ones that have been alleged".

"Specifically, we engaged Brown Rudnick as our lawyers to supplement our primary legal team from Linklaters and assist us in our bid for Project Eagle," the statement said.

"We have had a long standing relationship with Brown Rudnick in the United States. They informed us that they had been previously working with another interested party that was no longer involved in the process.

"We were not aware, and we were not made aware, of the reasons why their former client was no longer involved."

BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme has been investigating the circumstances around the deal.

It understands that Mr Coulter and Frank Cushnahan, a Nama Northern Ireland advisor until November 2013, had been involved in trying to set up the sale of the property portfolio to another US investment firm, Pimco.

The firm has confirmed "an unsolicited approach" was made, but it did not progress a deal and said it raised concerns with Nama.

Nama said it asked Pimco in March 2014 to withdraw from the sales process over the discovery of proposed fee arrangements between Tughans and its former advisor, Mr Cushnahan.

It said it had "serious concerns... in particular" the proposed payment to a former advisor.

Competitive

A Nama spokesman added on Sunday that Mr Cushnahan "never had access to confidential information but the Nama board determined this arrangement could undermine the integrity of the sale".

Ian Coulter left Tughans after the firm discovered he had diverted cash into an account in his name

His lawyers told Spotlight he is satisfied that at all times he complied with his fiduciary and statutory obligations as a member of Nama's Northern Ireland advisory committee.

Mr Coulter said he was unable to respond to Spotlight's requests for a response, nor has he returned other calls from the BBC.

Nama has insisted that the sale to Cerberus "delivered the best possible return" and that any issues are "internal" to Tughans and have "no relevance to Nama's open, competitive sales process".

Sources told Spotlight that the Law Society of Northern Ireland has been unable to establish what work was carried out by Tughans to earn millions of pounds in fees.

A Law Society investigation is ongoing.