Confidentiality was of the utmost importance to the Ansbacher banker, Mr Des Traynor, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Mr Sam Field-Corbett, who provided secretarial services to Mr Traynor and Mr Padraig Collery (who acted as the contact point in Ireland for depositors), said he knew little of the operation of the deposits despite having invested funds in them himself.
In a statement furnished to the tribunal, Mr Field-Corbett said he knew Mr Traynor since 1967 and that Mr Traynor helped him to set up his own secretarial company.
He said that in the late 1970s or early 1980s, "Des let me know that it would be open to me to invest in what are known as Ansbacher accounts."
Mr Field-Corbett said Mr Traynor did not put any pressure on him to avail of the facility. But "it was clear to me that this account was one which had advantages." He understood that it would be beneficial tax-wise.
Mr Field-Corbett said Mr Traynor gave no receipts, but twice or three times a year statements were hand-delivered to depositors by the banker's driver. These were "topped and tailed", with the addresses, letter heads and contact numbers chopped off.
Mr Field-Corbett said he was unaware if Mr Traynor had sought exchange-control clearance generally. However, he said, he knew it was never obtained in the case of his funds.
After Mr Traynor's death, he said, Mr Collery approached him seeking a premises for files, with 24-hour access, a desk, a post-box and a bank signatory.
He agreed to allow Mr Collery share his office. Mr Collery said he would be "looked after", but no fee was agreed or requested. As it happened, two ex-gratia payments were made in the Cayman Islands.
Mr Field-Corbett added that when the McCracken tribunal began, Mr Collery removed all the files from his office in a weekend.
Mr Field-Corbett said Mr Collery told him he was going to the Cayman Islands in July 1998 and that the purpose of the visit was to "close down" his involvement in the operation and obtain closing balances.
On his return, Mr Collery gave Mr Field-Corbett a hand-written document.
Asked whether he had been told the document should not be given to the tribunal, Mr Field-Corbett said: "Definitely not".
Mr Field-Corbett also said he was unaware that a similar hand-written document was given to a former work colleague of Mr Collery, Ms Margaret Keogh, who subsequently gave the document to the tribunal.
Mr Field-Corbett added that he was unaware that, while Mr Collery was in the Cayman Islands, money had been deducted from all the Ansbacher accounts, except their two accounts and that of Mr Traynor's former secretary, Ms Joan Williams, to pay Mr Furze's legal fees in challenging the McCracken tribunal.
