Transcripts of Garda interviews heard at Brendan Mullin trial – The Irish Times

Brendan Mullin, former chief executive of Bank of Ireland Private Bank, told Gardaí that he arranged for €500,000 to be repaid to Bank of Ireland in 2015 because he “could not leave claims of this nature hanging”.

Mr Mullin, 60, a former Ireland rugby player, is accused of stealing, among other charges, more than €570,000 from the Bank of Ireland Private Bank between 2011 and 2013, when he was chief executive. He denies all 15 charges against him.

Transcripts of four interviews Mr Mullin voluntarily gave to Gardai were read to the jury by prosecutor Dominic McGinn SC at his trial on Wednesday.

As part of the case against him, the prosecution alleged that Mr Mullin, of Stillorgan Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, allowed payments by the bank to solicitors McCann Fitzgerald, Beechwood Partners accountants and Grant Thornton for work carried out for his company Quantum Investment. He claims to have given it. Strategies or for him personally.

The prosecution also alleges that Mr Mullin stole €500,000 from Bank of Ireland during a breakdown in communications across various arms of the banking group, with the money eventually being transferred to a company called Spice Holdings, registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The court heard that a sum of €500,000 was repaid from Quantum to Bank of Ireland Private Bank in July 2015.

Mr Mullin spoke to Gardaí once in October 2018 and three times in the first half of 2020.

During the fourth interview, Mr. Mullin said he later learned that Bank of Ireland had contacted the Royal Bank of Canada regarding a payment of €500,000 into an account in the name of Spice Holdings in June 2013.

Mr Mullin said neither Spice Holdings nor the Royal Bank of Canada wanted to deal with Bank of Ireland and their lawyers arranged for the bank to transfer €500,000 to their lawyer Arthur Cox. He said he “cannot leave such claims hanging” and that the end result was “no loss for Bank of Ireland, no loss for Spice Holdings and no loss for me”.

Mr Mullin confirmed that the €500,000 sum came from Quantum and denied that the money was sent to his company by Spice Holdings for forwarding to the bank. He said he had an “ongoing relationship” with directors of Spice Holdings and that they had “many joint investments” and “transfers in and out”.

When asked to explain the source of the money, Mr Mullin said Spice or Quantum “would owe some money to the other party” and that they were “calculating outstanding amounts”.

In a third interview, Mr. Mullin said Spice Holdings was a “co-investor” with Quantum. “We invested together, but I did it with many people.”

Mr Mullin said his legal representatives received correspondence in 2013 containing “quite serious allegations against me in relation to this amount of money”.

“My goal was to understand what this money was about and whether there was a transaction error, which I believe there was,” but he could not get the requested information from the bank.

He said Bank of Ireland had instructed his lawyers to transfer €500,000. “I followed the lawyers’ advice. I would have preferred to resolve this in a civil suit rather than be here with you.”

He said that “it is not possible for a claim like this to remain unresolved” and added that the bank’s lawyers “consoled that some kind of relief would come to correct the bank’s transaction error, but it was not the case.”

In his first interview, Mr Mullin said that when he started working at Bank of Ireland Private Bank it was recognized that there were “legacy investments and issues” that needed to be addressed. He said he made it clear “internally and externally” that he was responsible for paying invoices “for non-bank business.”

Gardaí advised Mr Mullin that he had knowingly submitted eight invoices in respect of expenses in a private capacity and that there was no agreement that the private bank would pay them. Mr. Mullin disagreed and said four of those bills were “permissible transactions.”

He said those invoices, three from Grant Thornton and one from Beechwood Partners, were “approved” following discussions about the bank loan with Mick Sweeney, then head of wealth management, and Des Crowley, then head of retail at Bank of Ireland Group. .

Gardaí showed Mr Mullin a number of emails and invoices as part of the interviews. He denied deliberately sending four invoices totaling more than €61,000 from McCann Fitzgerald for payment through Bank of Ireland Private Bank in respect of private work carried out for him.

Mr Mullin said he discovered an invoice from McCann Fitzgerald in March 2013 had been “caught in the bundle” and had been paid in error from the client’s legal costs account. He said he brought the bug to others’ attention and fixed it.

He told gardaí that he had paid all four invoices to McCann Fitzgerald but at that point he was unaware that the private bank had paid three invoices before them. McCann said he informed Fitzgerald that he was responsible for paying those bills.

The court heard that after Mr Mullin paid these bills in April 2013, McCann Fitzgerald returned the money to Bank of Ireland Private Bank.

In a second interview with Gardaí in February 2020, Mr Mullin rejected the suggestion that “any transaction was undertaken for the benefit of me or anyone associated with me” when discussing the circumstances surrounding the transfer of €500,000 from Bank of Ireland. It is transferred to Spice Holdings.

Mr Mullin confirmed he knew Spice Holdings “as they were investing” and introduced them to the bank in 2010 but had no involvement thereafter or with day-to-day account management.

He said that as general manager he signed documents regularly and received multiple requests each week that he had to sign for authorization.

Mr Mullin rejected pressure to transfer €500,000 to an account owned by Northern Trust on behalf of Spice Holdings and said he believed there had been a “processing error”.

The hearing heard that Bank of Ireland Private Bank and New Ireland, both arms of the bank’s wealth management division, had agreed to equally share a €1 million refund to customers in respect of the payment of life insurance claims.

In a third interview Mr Mullin agreed with Gardaí that there had been confusion among staff about the payment of €500,000 from New Ireland to the private bank and that this should have been reported to him at the time.

The hearing heard that €500,000 was transferred by New Ireland to a Northern Trust account in the name of Spice Holdings in December 2011. Six months later, €500,000 was transferred to another account in the name of Royal Bank of Spice Holdings. In Jersey, Canada, following a faxed instruction.

Mr. Mullin said he did not authorize these transactions and that it was his understanding at this time to close certain accounts and return assets to customers.

He said it was not right that he was responsible for the €500,000 transfer to Spice Holdings and that he “did not transfer anything illegally”.

Detective Sergeant Sean O’Riordan said the court guard used mutual aid channels to obtain information from the Royal Bank of Canada but did not receive any assistance.

He confirmed that gardaí had made efforts to speak to the then private banking chief financial officer, Paul Gallagher, but he was unavailable for interview.

Det Sgt O’Riordan confirmed Mr Mullin was formally arrested and charged on 21 September 2021.

The witness agreed with Edward Doocey, arguing that Mr Mullin was co-operating with the investigation, had no previous convictions and was not subject to further investigations or ongoing charges.

The prosecution has now withdrawn its defense. The trial continues before Judge Martin Nolan and the jury.

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