Famed developer and face of Treasury Holdings, Johnny Ronan, concluded his written submission to the Banking Inquiry with an extraordinary reference to the slogan above the gates of many Nazi concentration camps.
Bad taste aside, his submission, some of which has been redacted by the Oireachtas, makes for interesting reading and we look forward to how some of his claims will shake out. For example:
“That NAMA was leaking selective, often un-true and one-sided confidential information to the press, to keep them on side in an attempt to justify a decision which has transpired to be wholly wrong. In particular, I am aware of one particular occasion, for example, when NAMA issued a press release to a national paper that contained untruths about certain demands that TH allegedly made of NAMA. NAMA maintained that TH had demanded £4 billion in development finance from NAMA, in order to develop Battersea, and claimed that this wouldn’t be in the interests of the Irish taxpayer. This, of course, was untrue as TH and our JV partner, SP Setia, did not ask NAMA for one penny in development finance. SP Setia had already agreed to pay NAMA the equivalent of 100% of the debt that NAMA held on Battersea Power Station and to fund all future development finance. Shortly thereafter, NAMA enforced its debt against Battersea Power Station and went on to sell it to SP Setia. In fairness to the national newspaper, they checked the facts with TH before the article went to print and TH evidenced that the entire story was fictitious.”
Read the full (albeit redacted in parts) submission here.