The Glackin Report

[Frankie Lee]

A background to the case from Ted Harding and Kathleen Barrington from 2002.
(The link on thestory.ie's site is broke for the full article)

One of the great controversies of the 1990s, it turned on the purchase by Telecom Eireann of the former Johnston Mooney & O’Brien (JMOB) bakery site in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

In April 1989 financier Dermot Desmond reached an agreement with the JMOB liquidator to buy the site for £4 million. The property was sold to a firm called Chestvale in September 1989. In January 1990 Desmond told semi-state firm Telecom Eireann that the best price he could get for the site was £9.4 million. Telecom agreed to pay this amount.

When a controversy blew up over the sale, inspector John Glackin carried out an inquiry on behalf of the Department of Industry and Commerce. Desmond denied that he had a beneficial interest in any of the companies involved in buying and selling the site.

He rejected all suggestions that he owned a company called Freezone, which was registered in the Isle of Man tax haven. It provided much of the financing for the purchase of the property and received £1.3 million in profit. Glackin’s report, hotly contested by Desmond, found that the financier was among those who made over £5 million from the sale of the Ballsbridge property.

The full report can be read here.

Oligarchs involved include: JP McManus, Dr Michael Smurfit, John Magnier, Joe Lewis(billionaire from London's east end), Pat Doherty,

[C. Flower]

Thanks for that. A worthy first post for this new forum.