Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Payments to the accounts of Bertie Ahern
These really are staggering sums from 1994-1995. The majority are cash transactions involving Sterling. At the time, Bertie Ahern was earning about £30,000 Irish a year. Bank loan, £19,115.97, December 23, 1993 £22,500, December 30, 1993 (The supposed first digout) £5,000, January 31, 1994 £4,119.59, March 9, 1994 (Sterling) £1,028.40, March 9, 1994 (Sterling) £1,028.40,…
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In summation…
March 19: Judge Keys to counsel: All we want is the truth. That’s what we’re looking for. Aren’t we all.
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Grainne Caruth evidence
MR. O’NEILL: Ms. Grainne Carruth, please. 104 1 MR. GRAINNE CARRUTH, HAVING BEEN SWORN, WAS QUESTIONED BY 14:57:54 2 MR. O’NEILL AS FOLLOWS: 3 4 CHAIRMAN: Good afternoon, Ms. Carruth. 5 6 Q. 624 MR. O’NEILL: Ms. Carruth, I think you worked with Mr. Bertie Ahern from 1987 7 until 1999, is that correct? 8…
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Grainne Caruth and Bertie Ahern
The evidence at the Tribunal today was nothing short of explosive. Unfortunately it received scant coverage. First, the manager of Irish Permanent Building Society, where Ahern had his personal account. Blair Hughes says he remembers Sterling transactions. Documentary evidence proves it. This directly contradicts Ahern’s story that they were salary lodgments. He also said the…
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Tim Collins and the Boyne site
Donagh over at Dublin Opinion has a good, and indeed lengthy summation of the Tim Collins/Boyne site deal. One would wonder whether Ahern got a fee from Collins.
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Bear Stearns
Ouch. The National Pension Reserve Fund has 17,181 shares in Bear Stearns according to their 2006 annual report. In 2006 those share were worth €2,123,556. Once the JPMorgan deal is finished, the NPRF’s holding will be worth €34,362. That’s a loss of €2,089,194. Worse still, the fund reported it had €11,526,645 of shares in Lehman…
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Ahern's foreign exchange lodgments
Nowhere in the media have I seen this tabulation. It is a record of the transactions the Tribunal have postulated involved foreign exchange. Property developer Tom Gilmartin has said that he had been told sometime in 1992 by Owen O’Callaghan that Bertie Ahern TD had been paid by Mr O’Callaghan the sum of £80,000 made…
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St Luke's – again
Hmm. This is new. Masterson et al said quite clearly in their book that St Luke’s was bought in 1988 for £57,000. £25,000 of this amount came from £1,000 donations from 25 individuals, “with further contributions over a five-year period”. The rest was mortgaged, with “the repayments paid through the constituency organisation’s own bank”. Another…
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Dead people save the day
Another amusing passage from the Collins evidence. Collins is being asked about the Davy cheque. He can’t remember anything about it. He can’t remember if he discussed it with Ahern. He can’t remember anything really. (Q77-83) The Davy donation was the biggest. £5K. But he can’t explain to the Tribunal why the biggest donations intended…
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Tim Collins and memory
One of the very first reactions I got to reading the transcript of Tim Collins is the following: Rehearsed. Between Q.1 and Q.200 Collins is vague about everything. He can’t remember. He doesn’t know. He can’t remember. Don’t know. Just can’t remember anything, it was all so long ago. Most of his answers amount to…
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