{"id":667547,"date":"2026-10-28T06:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T06:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667547\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T06:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T06:18:11","slug":"regulator-seeks-urgent-wind-up-of-liberty-recycling-to-protect-sectors-reputation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667547\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulator seeks urgent wind up of Liberty Recycling to protect sector\u2019s reputation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A charity at the centre of a Garda<\/a> money-laundering investigation spent more than \u20ac1 million acquiring additional fixed-term assets over a four-year period, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The High Court<\/a> on Tuesday appointed provisional liquidators to Liberty Recycling Training and Development CLG following an application by the Charities Regulator<\/a> as part of a petition to wind up the organisation.<\/p>\n

Established to support those with addiction, the charity last week saw the seizure of luxury cars and watches<\/a> by garda\u00ed, with a value of \u20ac300,000.<\/p>\n

A petition by the Charities Regulator to the High Court states it has \u201cvery serious concerns that the operations and bank account of the charity are being used for purposes which are unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditional fixed assets totalling \u20ac1,052,028 were acquired by the charity over the four years from 2022 to 2025. There are no loans, lease finance or hire-purchase finance arrangements mentioned in any of the financial statements. The bank account is not in overdraft at the end of any financial year,\u201d the petition states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears therefore that these acquisitions would have to have been paid for from the cash flow generated by profits of the charity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition adds that this \u201ccannot be reconciled\u201d by a response from the charity\u2019s trustees that it owned \u201cseven vans and a car all aged between four and 19 years old, two second-hand forklifts, a conveyor belt and a baler\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Charity in money-laundering investigation received \u20ac2m in State funding since 2020Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The regulator highlighted the purchase of a Porsche in 2025 and a 2026 BMW Jeep which were registered to a company called Liberty Developments.<\/p>\n

Those vehicles were in the possession and control of a senior staff member of the registered charity, which the regulator said \u201cis highly irregular and deeply concerning activity for a charity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The regulator also said it was \u201ccurious\u201d that the charity\u2019s accruals increased by \u20ac389,149 from 2022 to 2023, and then reduced again by the same amount in 2024.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed have also been investigating alleged suspicious transactions being routed through the charity. They comprised substantial international transfers of funds which were not commensurate with the level of activity taking place in the charity, it said.<\/p>\n

In its petition, the regulator said it was concerned that \u201cif the charity is not wound up on an urgent basis, there will be further damage to the charity, its service users, assets and the reputation of the charity sector as a whole\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, a Sinn F\u00e9in spokesperson said TD Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh, who is chairman of the charity, \u201cremains available to assist An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na with their inquiries\u201d.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said \u00d3 Snodaigh held discussions on Tuesday with the liquidator and with Department of Social Protection officials, and confirmed the liquidators had agreed to his request to facilitate a series of meetings with the charity\u2019s staff and stakeholders on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeputy \u00d3 Snodaigh further stated that it his intention to call an emergency board meeting of the associated company, Liberty Global Exports Company Limited, with the intention of looking at all options, including the winding-up of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based at Bluebell Industrial Estate in west Dublin, Liberty Recycling has nine charity shops in Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Ennis, Bray, Mullingar, Drogheda and Cork. <\/p>\n

It sells used clothes, shoes and textiles through these shops and through clothes markets in developing countries.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0BMWs, Louis Vuitton bags, Rolex watches seized amid charity money-laundering allegationsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The High Court documents state there is \u201cno evidence to suggest that the trustees are involved in, or aware of, any alleged criminal activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the regulator said trustees allowed separate non-charitable, corporate entities to be set up and conflated with the operations and assets of the charity, describing this as a \u201ccomplete failure of governance\u201d.<\/p>\n

The regulator raised concerns the trustees had not suspended senior employees pending the investigation, or taken step to \u201cprotect the charity or its assets\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir approach to dealing with continuing cash receipts is particularly concerning,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Judge Brian Cregan appointed Shane McCarthy and Cormac O\u2019Connor of KPMG<\/a> as provisional liquidators following a one-side only represented (ex parte) application by James Doherty, counsel for the regulator. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the Charities Regulator said the appointment of a liquidator placed executive control of the charity into \u201cindependent hands\u201d.<\/p>\n

This would \u201cenable transitional arrangements to be put in place to support the charity\u2019s vulnerable service users and employees, and to secure the assets of the charity and their transfer, if possible, to another charity with a similar charitable purpose,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A charity at the centre of a Garda money-laundering investigation spent more than \u20ac1 million acquiring additional fixed-term…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88446,73,61,60,18040,43],"class_list":["post-667547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-charities-regulator","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kpmg","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}