Mahon tribunal:An invoice for £25,000 submitted by Liam Lawlor to Frank Dunlop was a forgery, the tribunal has been told.
Declan Ganley, executive chairman of the Ganley Group of Companies, said the use of an invoice dated February 1997 and purportedly from his company to Frank Dunlop and Associates, for communications consultancy work in eastern Europe and the Balkans, had not been authorised by his company. "It's fraudulent."
He first met Mr Lawlor at the Galway Races, when Mr Lawlor "gate-crashed" a tent hosted by the Ganley Group. He learned that Mr Lawlor was a Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin and was a member of the Trilateral Commission.
The Ganley Group later engaged Mr Lawlor to assist it in Albania, where the group was involved in a voucher privatisation project and was concerned about a pyramid scheme then in operation there.
Mr Lawlor was paid £30,000 for this work, he said. On one occasion he had met Mr Lawlor in Albania along with Mr Lawlor's son, Niall, who was working for a bank in the US.
Mr Ganley told Pat Quinn SC, for the tribunal, that in the mid- 1990s, Ganley International had offices in London and a turnover of more than £7 million, comprising mostly business in eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc. His partner was Gary Hunter.
Mr Quinn showed Mr Ganley a document that seemed to indicate Mr Lawlor was to be paid $10,000. Mr Ganley said this was often the currency used in eastern Europe.
Mr Dunlop told Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, that he had been visited by Mr Lawlor in Mr Dunlop's offices on Mount Street, Dublin. Mr Lawlor had said he believed he was due more money for his input into the Quarryvale project, over and above the amounts he had received from Mr Dunlop on previous years. At this stage the Quarryvale lands had been rezoned. Mr Dunlop discussed the matter with Owen O'Callaghan, who said he was paying no more money to Mr Lawlor, but Mr Dunlop could do anything he liked.
Mr Dunlop eventually agreed with Mr Lawlor that he would pay him £25,000 when he received a £100,000 payment he was due from Mr O'Callaghan arising from advice he had given him during a controversy over the Horgan's Quay site in Cork.
He said Mr Lawlor would have to produce an invoice for the payment and Mr Lawlor produced the Ganley invoice. Mr Dunlop said he knew the invoice was "dodgy". The payment was treated as an expense in the accounts of Frank Dunlop and Associates.
Mr Dunlop continues his evidence on Monday.