Conspiracy trial hears that former CEO of CHC and other staff have pleaded guilty to some charges

Padraig Conlon 15 Feb 2023

By Eimear Dodd

The jury in the fraud trial of a former financial services manager for Custom House Capital has heard that the company’s former CEO Harry Cassidy and others have pleaded guilty to charges.

On day eleven of the trial Michael Bowman SC, defending, told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury that Harry Cassidy (67) of Clon Brugh, Aitkens Village Stepaside had pleaded guilty.

Detective Garda Aidan Deveney told Mr Bowman that he was aware that the company’s former head of private clients John Whyte (53) of Beechpark Lucan, head of finance Paul Lavery (47) of Rafeenan Ballynod and John Mulholland (73) of Mount Juliet, Thomastown, a non-executive director, have entered guilty pleas.

In other evidence yesterday, Detective Garda David Coyne said at least four garda members and two garda cars were present during the arrest of Ciara Kelleher of Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7 outside her home on March 29, 2016.

Det Coyne disagreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that three garda cars were present when Ms Kelleher was arrested.

He said he thought only two gardai were with Ms Kelleher when she was arrested, while two others were in a car nearby.

He said gardai deemed it appropriate to arrest Ms Kelleher outside her home.

Det Coyne told Lorcan Staines SC, prosecuting, that the manner of the initial arrest of Ms Kelleher in 2016 was not intended to cause her upset.

Det Coyne said around 2.5 million objects were retrieved by gardai from a server as part of their investigation in an alleged conspiracy to defraud investors in Custom House Capital (CHC) over a decade ago.

Dt Gda Deveney told Mr Staines that gardai obtained a forensic tool in 2019 which was used to carry out keyword searches on over 1.2 million emails.

The witness said some emails were handed in by witnesses before 2019, but the forensic tool allowed gardai to filter documents more efficiently.

Det Deveney agreed with Mr Bowman that Ms Kelleher was under pressure from Mr Cassidy, who associated the issuing of valuations to clients with the collection of CHC’s fees.

He accepted it was possible that Mr Cassidy or Mr Whyte could have knowledge about clients that others would not be aware of, as this information may not be recorded on the system.

A valuation checklist was shown to Det Deveney and he told Mr Bowman he only recently became aware of this document.

Mr Bowman also showed the witness an update sent to clients, which stated a property deal did not go ahead and said staff may not known this.

Det Deveney agreed that Ms Kelleher told gardai that she sought to follow up instructions from clients to transfer cash deposits from CHC to other institutions.

He also accepted that Ms Kelleher told gardai that Mr Cassidy allegedly reacted angrily to her on one occasion when she spoke with him about this.

Mr Bowman put it to the witness that some emails put to Ms Kelleher by gardai during her second interview in 2020 show her concern that deadlines to issue valuations were not being met and he agreed this was her answer.

Det Deveney agreed with Mr Bowman that a lot of money was taken from client accounts and a company wide fraud was going on at the time.

Two internal CHC emails were shown to Det Deveney and he confirmed they were not put to Ms Kelleher during interviews.

Ciara Kelleher (51) has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiring with others to defraud investors, clients, and customers of Custom House Capital (CHC) Ltd. by intentionally misleading them as to where or how their assets had been placed in the investment firm.

The offences are alleged to have happened within the State on dates between October 2008 and July 2011.  The trial continues before Judge Orla Crowe and the jury.

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