Nine members of an investment syndicate have begun a €10m court action over what they claim were secret profits made on land deals in Co Offaly in 2007.
The case against auctioneer Ger Killally, a Dublin law firm and other financial advisers is claiming damages for a failure to disclose the true nature of the deals.
Mr Killally, a former county council chairman, was described as the leading personality behind the launch of an investment scheme to buy the land at Daingean in Co Offaly in 2006.
He put together a syndicate of investors to buy land with him, telling them the price was €10.7m.
It is alleged that he already owned the land, having paid €4.7m and through a complicated transaction using two companies, made a secret profit of over €5m from the deal.
Investors say they were told that contracts to sell on the land would be secured before they drew down their loan, but there was a question now if these contracts ever existed.
Mr Killally is now a bankrupt and has not entered a defence.
However, the investors allege that solicitors John Bourke and Francis O'Doherty, of Bourke and Co Solicitors in Walkinstown, had concerns about the transactions and should have alerted them.
Key to the case is a memo on the solicitors' file, which asks if Mr Killally's assertions that the land could be sold on for the benefit of investors was a scam and if the syndicate was aware.
The plaintiffs also claim it says Mr Killally would lie if the syndicate became aware.
Counsel for the plaintiffs Ronan Murphy said the use of the word scam in a solicitor's file was 'completely extraordinary'. Alongside a suggestion that a lie would be told, it rings out, he said.
While the solicitors were not accused of fraud, he said there was also other evidence that they should have had major concerns about the transactions and failed in their duty to inform investors.
One of the investors Peter Wheeler, a former garda, said he was invited into the syndicate by Mr Killally. Mr Wheeler said he trusted him.
Mr Killaly had twice run in the General Election and was a chairman of Offaly County Council.
The defendants deny the claims. The case is expected to last three weeks.
