Jim Corr caught up in tax fraud probe

[Yammitor]

News from back on Nov 1st only saw it now.
Looks like they have set the attack dogs on Jim for rocking the boat over the last few months in the run up to the Lisbon fix fiasco.
Hope it was just a warning shot.

Corr caught up in tax fraud probe
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6898159.ece
John Mooney
November 1, 2009

Pop star Jim Corr is among a group of wealthy businessmen who have become unwittingly embroiled in a Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) inquiry into money laundering and tax evasion.

Corr is not suspected of any wrongdoing but some of his property investments have been examined as part of an inquiry into William Marks, a businessman from Dundalk, Co Louth.

Corr, 45, made investments involving one of Marks's associates that came to the attention of the CAB and Revenue Commissioners during the investigation. Corr said he did not wish to comment on the matter when contacted by The Sunday Times last week.

The musician is said to have been "astonished" when he was told that one of his business ventures was under scrutiny. Files relating to the deal were seized by CAB detectives from an accountancy firm. The musician has not been interviewed, and the security services are satisfied he is an innocent party.

Marks, who is not a known republican, became a target for the bureau after he was linked to property deals in which the IRA was an alleged beneficiary. He is being pursued for close to €10m. Marks was a witness at the beef tribunal, chaired by Justice Liam Hamilton. The lengthy inquiry, which ended in 1993, examined irregularities in the meat industry.

Marks is not a friend of Corr but the two are believed to know each other through a mutual acquaintance.

Claims that Marks was involved in dubious financial practices surfaced in 2007 when it emerged he was at the centre of a CAB investigation. He was targeted as part of a probe into what the garda and Police Service of Northern Ireland privately refer to as "IRA plc".

Since 2004, the CAB and its British equivalent, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, have mounted a series of operations intended to strip the terrorist organisation and its key members of the proceeds of crime. Targets of the operation have included Thomas "Slab" Murphy, a former IRA chief of staff. The bureau has issued High Court proceedings to recover €5.3m in assets from the south Armagh farmer.

The inquiry into Marks's finances was prompted, in part, by his friendship with Phil Flynn, the former chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and vice president of Sinn Fein. Flynn was also investigated by gardai and Revenue after Ted Cunningham, a business associate, was caught with £2.4m (€2.6m) in used sterling at his home in Cork in 2005. The money was part of the £26.5m in cash stolen by the IRA from the Northern Bank in Belfast in December 2004. Flynn was cleared of any wrongdoing. Cunningham was jailed for 10 years in March.

The inquiry into Marks's wealth has become one of the most complex inquiries by the bureau, which was established in 1996 following the murder of crime journalist Veronica Guerin to strip terrorists and criminals of their wealth. The agency can ask to confiscate property and seize the contents of bank accounts at secret High Court hearings, where the burden of proof applied is lower than for a criminal charge.

Marks has sought to stop reports about the CAB investigation into his wealth by threatening legal action against newspapers. He denies allegations of wrongdoing. According to one acquaintance, Marks believes he has no case to answer, though he admits he may have some "outstanding tax issues". The investigation into his affairs is continuing, however. Calls to the businessmen went unanswered last week.

Corr was the creative genius behind The Corrs, a pop band he set up with his three sisters in the 1990s. He has also become known as a conspiracy theorist, claiming that the 9/11 attack on America was masterminded by "rogue elements" in George Bush's administration.

His website, jimcorr.com, also claims the 7/7 suicide bombings in London were the work of the security services and used to justify the continuation of the war in Iraq.