{"id":668721,"date":"2026-10-29T09:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668721\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T09:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:56:14","slug":"dublin-charity-may-have-been-infiltrated-by-illegal-organisation-watchdog-fears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668721\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin charity may have been infiltrated by illegal organisation, watchdog fears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Significant amounts of money may have been diverted away from Liberty Recycling, a charity established to help recovering drug addicts, and taken for the benefit of an unlawful organisation, the Charities Regulator<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the information currently available, it appears that some of this conduct [in the charity] is unlawful and\/or was carried out for the benefit of an organisation, membership of which is unlawful,\u201d the regulator said in legal documents.<\/p>\n

The criminal investigation into Liberty Recycling was instigated by the Garda<\/a> and is being carried out by the money laundering unit within the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau.<\/p>\n

However, the regulator has, since July, been briefed by garda\u00ed on progress with the investigation and is offering assistance.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rags and riches: How an Irish charity became the focus of a criminal investigation <\/p>\n

Liberty Recycling, which has a nationwide reach, a Dublin headquarters and logistics depot, and nine retail premises across Ireland, has had its bank accounts frozen as part of the Garda investigation.<\/p>\n

While computers and documents were also seized during searches last week, along with two BMW X5 SUVs worth \u20ac250,000 and designer watches and bags<\/a> valued at \u20ac40,000, evidence suggesting significant further irregularities has since emerged.<\/p>\n

These came to light after detectives reviewed the material seized last week. They are investigating the purchases of a Porsche<\/a> last year and a BMW SUV earlier this year, with the latter bought \u201cin the name of Liberty Developments\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"LibertyLiberty Recycling operates a charity shop on Camden Street in Dublin. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Liberty Developments holds funds available to Liberty Recycling, but the vehicle was \u201cin the possession and control of a senior staff member\u201d.<\/p>\n

It has also emerged that some \u20ac34,705 in cash, believed to belong to Liberty Recycling, was found in suspicious circumstances at the home of a staff member during Garda searches in July of last year.<\/p>\n

Details of the allegations are contained in documents prepared by the Charities Regulator for the High Court<\/a>. The regulator has also expressed serious concern about large sums in international transfers that appear to have been routed through the charity\u2019s accounts.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Regulator seeks urgent wind up of Liberty Recycling to protect sector\u2019s reputationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThese transactions comprised substantial international transfers of funds which were not commensurate with the level of activity taking place in the [Liberty Recycling] charity,\u201d the regulator has said in its petition documents to the High Court seeking the appointment of provisional liquidators.<\/p>\n

The Garda investigation into the charity is also examining \u201csuspected laundering of the proceeds of crime through the charity\u2019s bank accounts\u201d. <\/p>\n

Though the charity is a legitimate entity that offers work and training to recovering drug addicts, garda\u00ed are examining the alleged activities of a small number of people either engaged by it or with links to it.<\/p>\n

The trustees of the charity, including its chairman, Sinn F\u00e9in TD Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh, are not under suspicion, and are not under investigation by the Garda. However, the regulator has strongly criticised their approach to governance. <\/p>\n

It said the trustees did not appear to appreciate the seriousness of the allegations of criminality being made, continued to back senior personnel at the charity and had not suspended anyone pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

The regulator has also invited the trustees to clarify how a private company, which exports cleaning materials across Europe, was owned by a senior staff member at Liberty Recycling and was operating from the charity\u2019s depot in Bluebell, Dublin 12. <\/p>\n

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

\"SinnSinn F\u00e9in TD Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh, chairman of Liberty Recycling, supports the Garda investigation and is available to assist, the party said. Photograph: Stephen Collins\/Collins <\/p>\n

In a statement, Sinn F\u00e9in said \u00d3 Snodaigh \u201creiterated\u201d his support for the continuing Garda investigation supported by the Charities Regulator and would remain available to assist.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeputy \u00d3 Snodaigh has remained in regular engagement with the office of the Charities Regulator over the past week since confirmation of the investigation emerged, and he remains available to assist An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na with their inquiries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Significant amounts of money may have been diverted away from Liberty Recycling, a charity established to help recovering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74095,45,18041,88446,73,61,60,18040,43,3415],"class_list":["post-668721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aengus-o-snodaigh","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-bmw","tag-charities-regulator","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kpmg","tag-news","tag-sinn-fein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668721","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=668721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}