‘Former INM boss let data be removed’
Outside team was brought in for job, court is told
‘Why is somebody else paying this?’
A FORMER chairman of Independent News and Media allowed the firm’s servers to be accessed by an outside team which removed ‘large, indiscriminate quantities of data’ for the benefit of a mystery third party, the High Court has heard.
The large-scale trawl may have been ordered in 2015 by Leslie Buckley, the then chairman of Ireland’s biggest newspaper group, and ‘facilitated’ by INM’s IT director Gerry Wilde, the court heard. Mr Buckley left the company two months ago.
A UK-based data firm, paid by an unknown third-party, was looking to find information on specific individuals, including INM’s former chief executive Gavin O’Reilly and its former director of corporate affairs, Karl Brophy, both of whom left Information: Gavin O’Reilly in 2012, and others, it was claimed by Brian Murray SC, for the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.
This data – ‘particularly emails and records’ – was then to be taken to another country for examination, and to be later returned, Mr Murray said.
The intention was to ‘find information that would benefit Ex-chairman: Leslie Buckley a third party,’ he added.
Mr Murray told Judge Seamus Noonan: ‘Why does somebody else pay the cost of the company’s data being interrogated? Why is somebody else paying this? What rights does their payment give them over the exercise?’
This week, INM has been in the High Court, as part of a judi- cial review, trying to fend off a bid by the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Ian Drennan, to send his inspectors into INM. The ODCE wants to examine what it says are serious ‘corporate governance’ concerns it has about the company.
The media group says the ODCE’s inspection bid, launched in March, has ‘done untold damage’ to the company. The judicial review concluded yesterday and Mr Justice Seamus Noonan said he will decide later whether the ODCE should be allowed to proceed with its case against INM.
Separately, businessman Denis O’Brien, who owns a 29.9% stake in INM, is suing PR firm Red Flag, which is run by Mr O’Reilly and Mr Brophy. Mr O’Brien alleges a conspiracy to damage his reputation. That case has not yet reached a full hearing.