Financial adviser bailed in IRA money laundering probe
A financial adviser was freed on bail tonight after being charged over an alleged IRA money laundering ring set up after the notorious £26.5m (€34bn) Northern Bank robbery.
Timothy Cunningham was charged with 10 offences linked to the dirty money racket in the Irish Republic, including having £3.5m (€4.5m) from the Belfast city centre heist.
The 59-year-old, known as Ted, from Farran in Co Cork, was charged with trying to launder cash and cheques by disposing of them through friends, family and business associates.
The charges follow a cross-border police investigation lasting more than three years which involved anti-terrorist units, fraud squads and Ireland's dedicated Criminal Assets Bureau.
A second man, Don Blaney, from Old Church Road, Passage West, Co Cork, was also bailed on firearms charges linked to the probe.
Cunningham, who appeared with Blaney at a special sitting of Cork District Court, was accused of having £3.5m (€4.5m) in cash, €200,000 in cheques and three cars, all related to the robbery at the Belfast bank in December 2004.
The court was told he gave two cars, both bought with money from the heist, to former Sinn Fein election candidate Tom Hanlon and Belfast financial consultant Catherine Nelson.
Money lender Cunningham was ordered to put up a €400,000 bond for bail, which included the deeds of his home, told to sign on at a garda station in Cork three times a week, surrender his passport and stay in Ireland.
Blaney, 50, was charged with possession of 220 rounds of live ammunition found when gardaí raided his home in February 2005 following a tip-off that a man was burning cash in his back yard.
The court was told he replied “definitely not guilty” when the charge was put to him.
Cunningham was arrested in February 2005, less than two months after the bank heist, when detectives running Operation Phoenix raided his home and seized sackloads of cash.
A series of other searches in counties across Ireland recovered thousands more in cash and cheques allegedly linked to the businessman.
The court was told he made no reply when the charges were put to him.
The 10 charges he faces include possession of £3.01m (€3.86m) from the bank robbery, a cheque for €56,000 from the heist, which he gave to his son, Timothy Junior, and two cheques worth €144,000, also from the bank job, which he lodged in a bank account in Co Wicklow.
He was also charged with having a Mitsubishi Pajero car worth €10,000, bought with money from the heist, which he gave to Mr Hanlon.
Both Ms Nelson and Mr Hanlon were arrested during Operation Phoenix but were released without charge and have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
The charges follow a two-year investigation spearheaded by the Criminal Assets Bureau into Cunningham’s affairs.
It is understood his money-lending company, Chesterton Finance, was given tax clearance by the Revenue Commissioners in January this year.
Phil Flynn, a respected Government consultant and industrial relations trouble-shooter, was a former director of the company but has consistently denied any knowledge of a money laundering scam or any wrongdoing.
His Dublin offices were raided as part of the widening garda probe in 2005 and, after a miniature pen-gun was found in his desk, he was charged with possession of a firearm and ordered to make a charity donation.
He was also forced to resign from his position as chair of the Government’s decentralisation committee, chair of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), and a board member of VHI.
