Now Denis O’Brien goes to war on the watchdog!
Tycoon accuses watchdog of leak... says he’s going after him ‘personally’ ODCE hits back, insisting affidavit only made public after INM got wind
BILLIONAIRE businessman Denis O’Brien has accused the Director of Corporate Enforcement of leaking damaging details about him in a probe into Independent News and Media.
In an extraordinary day in the High Court yesterday, where the ODCE was seeking to send its inspectors into INM, it was heard that:
Mr O’Brien said he held ODCE director Ian Drennan ‘fully and personally responsible’ for the leaking;
The ODCE said the leaks had only begun after the ODCE’s High Court proceedings were served on INM;
Judge Peter Kelly said INM was seeking to ‘strike a knockout blow’ by seeking a judicial review of the ODCE’s application to inspect the media company.
Mr O’Brien wrote a letter to Mr Drennan complaining that he had been subjected to ‘extraordinary’ and still intensifying levels of media coverage which suggest ‘wrongdoing’, the High Court heard.
In the letter, which was sent on April 6, and was read out in court by Neil Steen SC for the ODCE, Mr O’Brien suggested the Director had facilitated media access to the affidavit or had failed to take steps to prevent it being leaked.
He said that such failures have caused and are continuing to cause ‘damage to me and my reputation’.
Mr O’Brien also referred in his letter to the collapse of the trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick, saying he would have expected, in the aftermath of that case, the ODCE should understand the importance of keeping documents confidential. In the FitzPatrick case, a lawyer working within the ODCE office had shredded much of the evidence and the office was heavily criticised.
Signing off, the court heard, Mr O’Brien wrote: ‘I intend to hold you fully and personally responsible for all such failures and breaches of duty.’
Mr Steen read out a letter the ODCE wrote to Mr O’Brien in response, on April 13, denying he had leaked any information about him. The ODCE said the papers had been served on INM, as required by the rules of the court, and if any other parties had been given access to the document they were not responsible.
Before he read out the letters, Mr Steen told the court: ‘No information emerged in the public domain at any stage, it was only after the proceedings were served [on INM] that any so-called leaks occurred. They were not served on any other person.’
Lawyers for the ODCE – which has been investigating INM for over a year – went to the High Court yesterday seeking to ‘urgently’ send its inspectors into INM, of which Mr O’Brien is a majority shareholder. The ODCE is looking to investigate corporate governance at the media group.
The probe by the watchdog was prompted by a protected disclosure made by ex-INM chief executive Robert Pitt, who had a disagreement with former INM chairman Leslie Buckley over an acquisition of radio station, Newstalk.
The Irish Independent reported earlier this month that in Mr Drennan’s affidavit 19 people were identified as ‘persons of interest’ on a list of names uncovered by the ODCE as part of a probe into the suspected removal of data from INM. The Data Protection Commissioner is investigating this matter.
In relation to the ODCE probe, Mr Drennan ‘is anxious the matter be dealt with as expeditiously as possible,’ the watchdog’s barrister Mr Steen SC told the court yesterday.
The watchdog feels there is evidence to suggest ‘that affairs of INM are or have been conducted in an unlawful manner,’ Mr Steen added.
Meanwhile, lawyers for INM yesterday launched its own surprise rear-guard action to stop Mr Drennan sending inspectors into INM. The dramatic manoeuvre – executed by way of a judicial review action being taken by INM against the ODCE – will significantly delay ‘urgent’ efforts by the ODCE to appoint inspectors. Shane Murphy SC, for INM, said the ODCE’s very decision to take a case against INM was a breach of the company’s ‘rights to natural and constitutional justice and fair procedures’. He said there was a ‘risk of impact on INM, its management, its shareholders and share price’.
There was indeed ‘potential damage to the company in [the ODCE] bringing the application,’ he added.
Judge Kelly said the media group’s fresh judicial review action – which will be heard in full next month – was seeking to ‘strike a knockout blow’ to the ODCE’s own case.
The judge said if INM’s own separate action – which will go before another judge on May 9 – is successful, then the ODCE’s case may never ‘even get to the starting blocks’. Lawyers for INM contend that the ODCE’s case is ‘doomed to failure’, the court heard.
‘Damage to my reputation’ Aiming to ‘strike a knockout blow’