Chequered past of entrepreneur who co-founded the action group
Gerard WalsH, an Irish businessman, is hardly a household name. despite the fact he co-founded the rBos shareholders action Group in 2009, he was never its public face and some members had not even heard of him until recently.
Mr Walsh, 60, has also been acting as a voluntary adviser to the GrG action Group, a separate body that is representing more than 500 small firms who claim they were mistreated by rBs. However, he has a controversial past. In 2014, the Jersey royal Court described Mr Walsh as a ‘fraudster’ in a case involving the owners of Irish haulage firm Nolan Transport.
The Nolans claimed he induced them into putting money into various investments that led to huge losses. sources close to Mr Walsh say he denies wrongdoing, was not a witness nor a defendant in the Jersey case, and did not have an opportunity to contest the court’s findings. Prior to that judgment, the rBos shareholder action group successfully sued the scottish sun newspaper for a story alleging that it was being used by Mr Walsh to gain funds ‘for his own personal benefit’.
These are not his first court battles. In 1997, a judge in the High Court of Ireland ruled that he was ‘guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation’ by posing as a lamborghini dealer.