Businessman Denis O’Brien made payments to former communications minister Michael Lowry that were “demonstrably referable” to the granting of a mobile phone licence to his company Esat Digifone, according to the report of the Moriarty Tribunal.
Mr O’Brien had at least two meetings with Mr Lowry during the time the competition process was under way and the tribunal noted it was “wholly incredible and inconceivable” that the pair did not talk about the licence.
It says that payments to Mr Lowry began in “clandestine circumstances” less than seven weeks after the licence was granted.
“In particular, the Tribunal is satisfied that payments and other benefits…were furnished by and on behalf of Mr Denis O’Brien to Mr Michael Lowry, and that these were demonstrably referable to the acts and conduct of Mr Lowry in regard to the GSM process that inured to the benefit of Mr O’Brien’s winning consortium, Esat Digifone…,” it says.
The report says Mr O’Brien facilitated payments of IR£147,000 in October,1996; Stg£300,000 in March 1999 and support for a loan of Stg£420,000 to Mr Lowry later the same year.
A IR£147,000 payment arrived to Mr Lowry’s Isle of Man Irish Nationwide account through David Austin, an associate of both men, via a series of offshore accounts.
According to Moriarty Stg£300,000 was used to fund the purchase of a property in Mansfield, England and to fund a deposit on another property in Cheadle near Manchester.
The report also says that, in 1999, Mr Lowry received support for a Stg£420,000 loan, made by Woodchester/Investec Bank, from Mr O’Brien.
The report says this support gives rise to a “reasonable inference that the motive for providing the support was connected with the office of minister for transport, energy and communications, formerly held by Mr Michael Lowry”.
The report also acknowledges that the tribunal was a protracted and costly process and that errors had been made.
