The trial has begun in Belfast of a 54-year-old, Cork-born, financier who is facing over forty charges of fraud. George Finbarr Ross, originally from Dunmanway in County Cork, was extradited to the North last year. He is facing charges relating to the collapse of his Gibraltar based firm, International Investments Ltd. Prosecuting Counsel told the jury they were facing into a complicated and complex case which could last for at least six weeks. Almost the first hour of the hearing was taken up with the reading of the charges against Mr Ross. He was handcuffed to a prison officer in the Dock and stood impassively as the charges were read. He is denying all the charges.
Finbarr Ross was taken from prison to the Belfast Crown Court today to face over forty charges of fraud and false accounting. The charges, which date back to the mid eighties, relate to the alleged loss of more than £600,000 by clients in the North of Ross's failed finance company, International Investments Limited. Opening the case, a prosecution lawyer said Ross had invited people to invest in a company, claiming it was financially sound, secure and viable, while it was clear that for a considerable period beforehand the company was hopelessly insolvent. In that situation the prosecution said, to solicit or invite investments in the company was a gross misrepresentation of the true state of affairs.
When the company collapsed in 1984, Finbarr Ross left Ireland for America, went into business there, and eventually became involved in a church group in Oklahoma. Fourteen years later, following allegations of fraud by investors in the North, the RUC began extradition proceedings and last May, Mr Ross was sent back to Belfast to stand trial.
