Former finance Minister Sammy Wilson said today that he "never got a penny" from a deal to sell the Northern Ireland loan book.
Instead, the east Antrim MP said he was "hoping to get political kudos" and "to show people that devolution was working for their benefit."
Mr Wilson was called to give evidence at Belfast Crown Court where a corporate financier is currently on trial for fraud.
Frank Cushnahan, who is 83 and from Alexandra Gate in Holywood, has been charged with, and denies, 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.
As he sat in the witness box, Mr Wilson was questioned by defence barrister Frank O'Donoghue KC who is representing Cushnahan.
Mr O'Donoghue raised the issue of "all sorts of rumours going around about people getting paid" in relation to the deal and when asked if he got any money, Mr Wilson said "I never got a penny out of it."
He said: "What I was hoping was to get political kudos out of it."
Mr Wilson said that as the then Finance Minister people were coming to him with problems and that he was hoping to provide an answer to their problems.
He also spoke of "massive political gain" for the Executive as securing a deal would have shown people "devolution was working for their benefit."
Mr Wilson added that in his dealings with Cushnahan he respected him and felt he was "very civic-minded" and "always wanted to put something back."
Prior to being cross-examined by the defence, a Crown barrister posed a series of questions to Mr Wilson.
He confirmed to Jonathan Kinnear KC that he was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly between 2002 and 2015 and that he held the position as Minster for Finance and Personnel from July 2009 to July 2013.
Mr Wilson was also asked about the "huge impact" the bank crisis had which resulted in the establishment of Nama.
The politician spoke of the problems faced at that time by builders, property developers and others affected who were "fearful as to what would happen with them."
He also spoke of concerns held by those with assets in Northern Ireland regarding decisions made by the Dublin-based NAMA.
Mr Wilson said he asked his counterpart in the Republic, Finance Minister Brian Lenaghan, if there could be a representative from the Northern Ireland Executive on the NAMA board.
He said Mr Lenaghan's response was that this would not be possible as "the legislation was through" which dictated who could sit on the Board.
Asked by Mr Kinnear if he came up with any other suggestions, Mr Wilson said they had a discussion and he asked "is there a way we can get a voice for Northern Ireland on the Board and we came to the conclusion that a Northern Ireland Advisory Committee could be set up?"
Mr Wilson said Mr Lenaghan asked him to come up with "some names" and that he proposed three people - Neil Adair who was involved in the Allied Irish Bank, senior civil servant Richard Pengelly and Frank Cushnahan.
After revealing both Mr Adair and Mr Pengelly were "ruled out", Mr Wilson was asked how he knew Frank Cushnahan.
He said this dated back to when he sat on Belfast City Council and Cushnahan was chairman of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners.
Mr Wilson said that over the years Cushnahan acted as an advisor to government ministers, he had a "deep knowledge" of the banking sector and knew "many of the players being affected by NAMA."
The jury has already heard that Cushnahan was appointed as an external member of NIAC in May 2010 and retired from that position in November 2013.
When asked by Mr Kinnear what his understanding of Cushnahan's role on that Committee was, Mr Wilson said it was to "bring some knowledge of the Northern Ireland context to the Board" but that he didn't have any decision-making responsibilities.
He added there was "an acceptance" that, as Finance Minister, information regarding Northern Ireland could be "fed back" to him.
Regarding his nomination of Cushnahan to NIAC, Mr Wilson said "from the very start we were totally transparent" about his background, knowledge and connections and that Mr Lenaghan was "fully aware" of these.
Mr Kinnear also questioned Mr Wilson about comments made by Cushnahan in a conversation with a property developer.
In that, Cushnahan said Mr Wilson was going to 'get a few pounds' from a potential deal with investment fund Pimco and that after Mr Wilson said he loved gardening and wanted to buy a nursery, Cushnahan told the property developer 'if this comes off' he would 'make sure' he got the nursery.
Asked by the Crown barrister if he ever had such a conversation about a nursery with Cushnanan, Mr Wilson said there was "never such a conversation."
He added: "Frank would have known this anyway but had there ever been any suggestion that there was anything in it for me personally other than the political benefit I was hoping to get, I would have had to terminate any contact with him."
