By Daniel McConnell From Sunday Independent

THE late former Tanaiste Brian Lenihan Senior and former Taoiseach Charles Haughey are two of nine former leading politicians named in the controversial Ansbacher dossier as having Cayman Island accounts for the purpose of avoiding paying tax.

The Sunday Independent can also reveal that several other leading Fianna Fail politicians who are still alive are also listed in the dossier.

The file – produced by Department of Jobs whistleblower Gerry Ryan – claims “offences, principally the unlawful evasion of tax, have been committed and the individuals involved in that tax evasion have failed to comply with their legal obligations to pay tax”.

Mr Ryan claimed that, as a consequence of the politicians’ actions, the taxpayer was defrauded. He has sent a file of allegations to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and claimed that the nine politicians were among a group of people contained in a “black briefcase” file with the Guinness & Mahon bank back in the late 1970s.

Mr Ryan claimed this list of highly influential people had off-shore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, which were operated by Mr Haughey’s accountant, the late Des Traynor, for the purposes of evading tax.

According to the dossier, a Guinness & Mahon manager who had access to the list said the “account balances in the ‘black briefcase’ Cayman Islands ledger were very substantial”.

A former senior Fine Gael minister was also listed as “a beneficial owner of one of the accounts in this very secret Cayman ledger”.

The dossier claimed that knowledge of the “black briefcase” emerged during Mr Ryan’s investigations into the Ansbacher accounts in April 2002.

The dossier also claimed that Mr Ryan was told by then-Minister for Enterprise Mary Harney that she came under huge political pressure not to grant extra powers to have the Ansbacher files investigated properly.

“She was verbally attacked for making the application to increase the powers of the investigators. Minister Harney was advised by some of those present that IR£20bn would flow out of the country if she did not call off the investigation,” the dossier claimed.

“Minister Harney refused to call off the investigation and no significant amount of funds left the country.”

Mr Ryan claimed he was later asked by Ms Harney to cease his investigations while they “were ongoing and before they were complete”.

It was at this point that a retired High Court judge, Declan Costello, was appointed to conduct further investigations into Ansbacher Cayman accounts.

The latest revelations come as Mr Ryan is said to be “very frustrated” at the failure of the PAC to formally accept his dossier and call him in before it to give testimony.

This weekend, Mr Ryan told PAC chairman John McGuinness he had a larger 763-page file which he wanted to hand over, but would only do so if granted protection by the committee. Last week, Mr Ryan wrote to committee members calling into question their legal advice, which said they could not legally deal with the dossier and that he was not covered by the Government’s new whistleblower legislation. Mr Ryan got his own Senior Counsel advice which directly contradicted the PAC’s legal advice.

In his legal opinion, John Hennessy SC said the dossier did qualify as a “protected disclosure”.

On foot of the legal dispute, the PAC decided to seek testimony from the Revenue Commissioners before deciding whether it can deal with Mr Ryan at all.

The Revenue Commissioners has said it had investigated a core number of 289 Ansbacher cases. The figure of 289 was first mentioned in the Revenue’s report in 2002, and a spokeswoman said all reports from Mr Ryan had been considered. The spokeswoman added: “Of the 289 cases, 283 are finalised and inquiries into the remaining six cases are well advanced.

The yield from the Ansbacher investigation as at December 31, 2013, was €112.77m from 143 cases.

No further information was provided about the claims passed to Revenue in 2005.

Mr Ryan brought his claims to the attention of Ms Harney’s successors in the department: Micheal Martin, Batt O’Keeffe and Richard Bruton.

He said he submitted the 763-page report to Mr Martin in 2007, after being asked by the minister to substantiate his allegations, and that Mr Martin sent it to the “Revenue Commissioners, the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Moriarty and Mahon tribunals”.

Mr Bruton, Jobs Minister since 2011, referred the dossier to the Garda fraud squad again two weeks ago.

IMAGE: Taoiseach Charles Haughey at his Abbeville residence at Kinsealy in 1995. Photo: Eamon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

For more on this story go to: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/brian-lenihan-snr-and-haughey-named-in-ansbacher-file-30766628.html

See also iNews Cayman related stories:

Published November 17 2014 “Ansbacherman returns to haunt official Ireland” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/ansbacherman-returns-to-haunt-official-ireland/

Published November 10 2014 “Des Traynor – Irish elite’s top money manager [he sent millions to Cayman Islands]” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/des-traynor-irish-elites-top-money-manager-he-sent-millions-to-cayman-islands/