Mr Aidan Phelan, Mr Denis O'Brien's former accountant, told the Moriarty tribunal he opened an account in the Isle of Man for the sole purpose of receiving Mr O'Brien's money.
Mr Phelan said the offshore AIB account was opened in his name in July 1996 and £407,000 was paid into it. The money came from the account of one of Mr O'Brien's companies in Woodchester Bank. Mr Phelan said Mr O'Brien instructed him to open the Isle of Man account in his (Mr Phelan's) name.
A total of £150,000 from the Isle of Man account went to the late Mr David Austin, the Fine Gael fundraiser, in the form of two payments.
Mr Phelan said the first was a payment of £50,000 on July 10th, after Mr O'Brien told him he was buying a house from Mr Austin in Spain. The other payment was a transfer of £100,000 into an account of Mr Austin's with the Bank of Ireland in Jersey on July 19th.
"Denis told me he had agreed a final price of £150,000 for this house in Spain and could I send it to David, which I did," he said.
Mr Phelan agreed that Mr Austin had opened a specific account into which he put the £150,000. Mr Austin later made a payment of £147,000 to Mr Michael Lowry. Mr Phelan said he knew nothing about this at the time.
Mr Phelan told Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, the Isle of Man account dealt solely with Mr O'Brien's money. He doubted that anyone else was aware of this.
Mr Phelan agreed Mr O'Brien had personal accounts in Woodchester Bank he could have put the £407,000 into. However, Mr Phelan was not offered, and sought, no explanation about this.
"Was this a regular business practice of Mr O'Brien and yours?" asked Mr Coughlan. Mr Phelan said it was not. He had not been asked to open an account for Mr O'Brien in his name before or since.
Earlier, Mr Phelan described himself as a "gofer" who was used to obtain a letter for the Esat Digifone board from his friend, Mr Austin.
The letter, confirming that a $50,000 Telenor donation had been received by Mr Austin and passed on to Fine Gael, was obtained when Mr Austin was ill.
"The directors of Digifone, who at the time were releasing information for the prospectus, wanted comfort on the issue," he said.
Mr Coughlan asked did he wonder why the Esat Digifone directors would be seeking comfort in relation to what he, Mr Phelan, believed was a payment by Telenor. Mr Phelan said he had not.
Mr Phelan said Mr Austin had to leave his house to get to a fax machine to send him the letter after he called him a second time about the matter.
Mr Phelan said he knew "absolutely nothing" about what eventually happened to the $50,000 donation.
Mr Coughlan asked Mr Phelan if he thought it strange that confirmation from Mr Austin should come to him, given that he was not given the full facts of the matter by Mr Austin, Esat Telecom or Esat Digifone. Mr Phelan agreed it seemed strange now.
Mr Coughlan asked if Mr Austin would have been likely to mislead him, "either by some act of commission or ommission". Mr Phelan replied: "No, I trusted David." He said he was "surprised" at how events had turned out.
