A former Nama adviser was secretly recorded taking nearly €50k in a car park
The film was made in 2012, when Frank Cushnahan was working with the bad bank in Northern Ireland.
BUSINESSMAN FRANK CUSHNAHAN has been secretly recorded accepting a £40,000 cash payment from a Nama borrower.
The recording involving the payment, worth about €48,000 at today’s rates, was made in a hospital car park in 2012, when Cushnahan was still working as an adviser to the Irish state’s bad bank.
A recording between Cushnahan and property developer John Miskelly was aired on BBC Spotlight last night.
Miskelly, once one of the richest people in Northern Ireland, can be heard saying Cushnahan had “proposed some deals to me”, adding: “I’m meeting him at the front entrance to the City Hospital in a blue Jaguar.”
The men are then heard discussing the £40,000 payment and Miskelly assured Cushnahan no one else knew about the meeting.
The programme claimed Cushnahan said he would use his “insider status” to help ease Miskelly’s financial problems.
Cushnahan has denied any wrongdoing and told Spotlight he would not commenting further due to the ongoing National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. Miskelly added that any payments he made “have been lawful”.
Background
In 2009, Nama was set up to deal with the collapse of the property bubble in Ireland.
It took on billions of euro worth of property development loans. Within that portfolio was about £4.3 billion in Northern Ireland-related property loans.
Frank Cushnahan
Cushnahan, a former banker, was appointed to a Nama committee by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in May 2010 and served until November 2013.
Earlier this year, Spotlight alleged that Cushnahan was caught on camera saying he was due to be paid a ‘fixer’s fee’ of £5 million if a bid for the portfolio by US investment fund Pimco was successful.
The deal collapsed in 2013, as did one with Cerberus’s investment fund in March 2014, for which Cushnahan was also allegedly in line for a payment.
A spokesperson for Nama said the organisation will not be commenting on the programme.
Nama’s dealings in Northern Ireland and the Republic have been raised in the Dáil on numerous occasions.
Last month, TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly were among a group of people who launched a “secure and anonymous” whistle-blowing website called Namaleaks.
At the time, Wallace said the website “will allow for anyone who has been unfairly treated or who has witnessed poor practice by Nama, or by any investment funds currently operating within Ireland, to securely and anonymously deliver information relating to same”.
Comments are closed for legal reasons. Written by Órla Ryan and posted on TheJournal.ie
