At the Moriarty Tribunal, Charles Haughey has for the first time been asked about offshore Ansbacher accounts that were held in his name and his knowledge of them. Even though his name appeared on documents concerning a £400,000 loan from the Cayman Islands, Mr Haughey said that he had no knowledge of it.
Despite its extensive trawls, the Tribunal can find no evidence of where this money went or whether it was ever repaid and today Mr Haughey could not help them. He knew nothing about this, he said. A loan has to be repaid, Tribunal lawyers pointed out. The money has to come from somewhere. "If it is repaid," Mr Haughey replied. He agreed he had not sold land or paid money from his salary. He was then asked if he would he agree that money to repay the loan must have come from somebody else. Mr Haughey said that he was not aware and said that his financial advisor, Des Traynor, would have organised that.
He also distanced himself from the Cayman banker who was central to the running of the Ansbacher accounts, John Furze. Mr Haughey was being questioned on a letter from Mr Furze to him in 1985 which had the reference "further to our recent telephone conversation..." Mr Haughey denied such a conversation would have happened and was adamant that he only spoke to Mr Furze once.
