Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has asked a senior officer to make contact with the chief executive and chairman of the National Asset Management Agency in relation to claims that banks gave misleading information to the agency about the scale of their losses.
In a letter to Oireachtas finance committee member Michael McGrath TD, the commissioner said the officer would see if there was any evidence of a criminal offence.
Deputy McGrath also wrote to Financial Regulator Matthew Elderfield, who told him his office expected to be contacted by NAMA chief executive Brendan McDonagh with information on the claims.
The move by Deputy McGrath followed an appearance by Mr McDonagh and NAMA chairman Frank Daly before the committee. Mr McDonagh told the committee that if it had relied on information from the banks without engaging in rigorous due diligence, NAMA would have overpaid massively for the bad loans.
After their appearance, Anglo Irish Bank chair Alan Dukes said that he utterly rejected any allegations that the bank had provided false, misleading information to NAMA. The former head of the National Treasury Management Agency Dr Michael Somers - who is also a public interest director of AIB - called the allegations 'outrageous'.
