Northern Ireland's former First Minister has given evidence to the NAMA trial in Belfast.
Peter Robinson, the former DUP leader, headed up the Stormont Executive when the huge property deal was done.
It resulted in the sale of Northern Ireland's NAMA loans to a US investment company.
The accused in the case is Frank Cushnahan, 83, from Alexandra Gate, Holywood.
He denies an alleged offence of fraud by failing to disclose information between April 1 and November 7, 2013.
The charge relates to the sale of the Northern Ireland property loan book held by the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), which was set up in the Republic of Ireland in 2009 following the property crash and banking crisis.
Mr Cushnahan sat on the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee (NIAC), which was established by NAMA to advise in respect of the property debts in Northern Ireland.
He was appointed as an external member of NIAC in May 2010 and resigned in November 2013.
It is the Crown's case that between April and November 2013, Mr Cushnahan dishonestly failed to disclose to both NIAC and NAMA information that he had a legal duty to disclose - namely that he was providing assistance to US investment fund PIMCO about the proposed purchase of the Northern Ireland loan book with the intention, by failing to disclose the information, to make a gain for himself or another.
PIMCO withdrew from the bidding after it learned NAMA was unaware of the arrangement.
Mr Robinson told Belfast Crown Court that he had first come across Mr Cushnahan in his role on the Belfast Harbour Commissioners and he had known him in total for between 30-40 years.
He said Mr Cushnahan had held various roles in support of government both before and after the establishment of the devolved administration at Stormont.
Mr Robinson said Mr Cushnahan had first been appointed by direct rule ministers.
"When they left, they left the furniture and Frank," he said.
The former first minister was asked about a meeting in May 2013 when Stormont politicians met with members of PIMCO.
Mr Robinson said Frank Cushnahan had been at the meeting too.
He described this as a "meet and greet" with politicians given the opportunity to meet potential investors and extoll the virtues of Northern Ireland and its young, educated workforce.
Mr Robinson said a memorandum of understanding offered by PIMCO would have provided some reassurance particularly to developers.
He said the company had offered that there would be no "fire-sale" of the NI loan book; that they would build out some of the projects in NAMA; and that they would not call in personal or company guarantees which could have collapsed multiple construction companies.
He later found out via a newspaper article that PIMCO had withdrawn its interest.
He said Cerberus, the next company which expressed an interest, was not offering the same kind of guarantees.
Mr Robinson said Stormont politicians had wanted to try and get a representative from Northern Ireland on the main NAMA board.
He conceded that he thought that they were "pushing our luck at little".
When the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee was established he considered it a "second best" as it did not have the power that the board did.
He said politicians in the Republic of Ireland had been well aware of concerns in Northern Ireland about the impact of the sale of the NAMA properties.
He said the authorities in Dublin had been "very helpful" through the process.
