Business Man Claims Anglo Offered €1m

A Belfast business man has complained Anglo Irish Bank offered him around €1m.

Property investor Peter Curistan and the publicly bailed out bank are currently engaging in a continuing battle, and this latest revelation throws up the possibility of criminal investigations.

Mr Curistan alleges a senior executive at Anglo Irish offered him £750,000 to dissolve his property company Sheridan Millennium Ltd in order to avoid his creditors, including Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK.

The matter has been reported as a criminal complaint to the Garda Siochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Last October, Anglo Irish changed its trading name to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).

The Hong Kong based entrepreneur explained: "The reason why they did this was because as part of a plan to dispose of the Odyssey Pavilion (an entertainment venue in Belfast), the bank had agreed to pay almost €3m (to) creditors, of which HMRC was owed a considerable amount.

"The €1m was to encourage me to wind up the company without the bank then needing to make those commitments. Clearly I was totally shocked at how a state-owned bank could blatantly asked me to partake in such activity."

He continued: "As a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, I had a duty to report allegations of criminal activity to the appropriate authorities. And this is why both the PSNI and the Garda have been informed of this in recent weeks."

(IT/GK)