Charity being investigated amid money-laundering allegations

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Now Sinn Féin has confirmed in the last few minutes that one of its TDs, Angus O'Snuddy, is the chairperson of a charity who is at the centre of an investigation amid money laundering allegations today following the seizure of luxury goods, including BMWs, Louis Vuitton bags and Rolex watches. Conor Lally is the crime and security correspondent with The Irish Times and joins us now. Conor, what can you tell us?

Conor Lally (1:12)

Good evening, yeah. I mean, the allegations here are under investigation by both the Gardie and the charity's regulator. Now, over the last two days, searches were carried out and we've seen the Gardie have said that they've seized two BMW X5s. These would be top of the end, top of the range luxury for four by fours. They'd have a combined value of about 250,000 euros. They've also seized other designer goods worth about 40,000 euros. Now, essentially, the allegation here is that some of the cash that was intended for the charity's work across the country was essentially siphoned off by persons unknown as of yet and turned into assets for their personal enjoyment.

These are very unusual assets that would be seized in the course of an inquiry into a charity organization. I think we can expect the inquiry to probably run for quite some time.

SPEAKER_3 (2:14)

Yeah, so was this a case of they were investigating individuals and it pointed them towards the charity or was it the increase in the turnover of that charity that maybe turned Gardy onto an investigation?

Conor Lally (2:25)

Well, I don't think the increase in the turnover would be all that relevant in terms of this is a charity that would have clothes banks all over the country. So they would collect a lot of clothing every week.

They'd sort through all that. They would go through around a 40-foot container of clothes each day, seven days per week. And then a lot of those textiles are sold to customers in Africa, parts of Asia and so on. And then they also have nine shops in Ireland. And they would sell some of that clothing through their stores here. So this is a charity that has a revenue stream and has had that for quite some time. It's more, obviously the charity's regulator came in to intelligence, certainly allegations, that some of the cash that was within this organization was not being used for what it was intended to be used for.

They've obviously targeted a small group of individuals and taken some assets off them on suspicion that those assets were either paid for or part paid for using the cash that should have actually gone to the work that's carried out by the charity.

SPEAKER_3 (3:41)

Okay, and we have had that statement, as I mentioned, from Sinn Féin in The Last Little Wild, that one of their TDs is the chairperson of this charity.

Conor Lally (3:47)

So Engas O. Snowley, who, you know, he would be a very well known TD, he is actually the chair of the charity and has been for quite some time. But look, I think it is important to stress that there's no suggestion that he is under investigation and certainly the items that have been seized haven't been taken from him.

But he is the chair of the organization. Sinn Féin says that it's aware of the inquiry being carried out by the guards and the charity's regulator.

Engas O. Snowley is obviously aware of it as well. He has engaged with the regulator so far, hasn't been contacted by Gardi. But Sinn Féin say if Gardi want to speak to him, he will make himself available to them.

SPEAKER_3 (4:30)

So where does this leave this particular investigation? Is it still very much in the ether and this is another step on it or are they progressing towards a finding?

Conor Lally (4:38)

Yeah, I mean, I think this is just one phase of the inquiry. I mean, generally speaking, what will happen here is before the Gardi go out and do searches and start doing things like taking assets, they will have worked away on the investigation for quite some time in the background. You'll generally only see a day of action in the way we have over the last 48 hours. Once the Gardi have X amount of evidence and they feel they have the grounds to go and apply to the courts for things like search warrants and so on, taking away assets is a big step.