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\nLiberty Recycling is involved in recycling clothes and other goods<\/p>\n
The High Court has been told that the Sinn F\u00e9in TD Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh in his capacity as chairperson of the charity Liberty Recycling signed off on the establishment of two other related entities which were not charities.<\/p>\n
The Charities Regulator told the High Court that this was done in one case to participate in a Department of Social Protection scheme and in the other because of issues regarding the VAT treatment of the proceeds of clothing sales by the charity.<\/p>\n
The regulator also told the High Court that Mr \u00d3 Snodaigh signed a letter confirming he had no objection to the establishment of a third entity linked to the charity, but which stated it was involved in buying and selling cars.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed are investigating suspicious transactions, which comprised substantial international transfers of funds, being routed through Liberty Recycling.<\/p>\n
The High Court was told that the investigation is focused on the suspected laundering of the proceeds of crime through the Charity’s bank accounts.<\/p>\n
Earlier, garda\u00ed seized two BMW X5s and subsequently discovered that another BMW and a Porsche had been bought in the name of the charity.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive of the Charities Regulator Madeline Delaney said in an affidavit earlier this week that while there was no evidence to suggest that the trustees are involved in, or aware of, any alleged criminal activity, they have allowed separate corporate entities to be set up, which are not charities, and have allowed the charity’s operations and assets to be conflated with those entities.<\/p>\n
This the regulator says represents a complete failure of governance for a charity.<\/p>\n
Ms Delaney told the court that she was seriously concerned that the charity\u2019s operations and bank account were being used for unlawful purposes and that it seems unlawful conduct was carried out for the benefit of an organisation, membership of which is unlawful.<\/p>\n
The Charities Regulator told the High Court that in addition to the two BMW X5s and the luxury handbags and jewellery worth over \u20ac300,000 seized following garda raids, “further large scale irregularities” emerged after material seized was analysed.<\/p>\n
These include the purchase of a Porsche in 2025 and the purchase of a 2026 BMW Jeep registered in the name of Liberty Developments, which a senior staff member had.<\/p>\n
\nLiberty Recycling is involved in recycling clothes and other goods<\/p>\n
The CEO of the Charities Regulator told the court that “the purchase of high value vehicles, for use by senior staff members, is highly irregular and deeply concerning activity for a charity”.<\/p>\n
Ms Delaney also said she believed the property of the charity was being misapplied or managed, there has been misconduct or mismanagement on the part of a member of staff and “there is no effective management or oversight of the activities of the charitable organisation by the charity trustees”.<\/p>\n
“Their approach to dealing with continuing cash receipts is particularly concerning” she said and, since the garda’s money laundering unit commenced their investigation, the charity appears to have taken no steps, even on a precautionary basis, to protect it or its assets “from misuse and\/or misappropriation and\/or dissipation”.<\/p>\n
The regulator also told the High Court that the charity had set up three separate but related entities which were not charities.<\/p>\n
Mr \u00d3 Snodaigh – along with four others: Philip Moloney, the CEO of the charity; Anthony Geoghegan; Linda Behan and Sean Cassin – is a director of Liberty CE Scheme Project Company Limited, which the trustees told the regulator was established to participate in the Department of Social Protection\u2019s community employment scheme.<\/p>\n
However Liberty CE which has three supervisors and 35 participants is not a registered charity.<\/p>\n
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\nChief Executive of the Charities Regulator Madeline Delaney<\/p>\n
Mr \u00d3 Snodaigh and Ms Behan are also directors of a second entity, Liberty Global Exports Company Limited which the trustees say was established following issues regarding the VAT treatment of the proceeds of sale of clothing by the charity.<\/p>\n
However, Liberty Global is not a registered charity either.<\/p>\n
In addition to Liberty Global and Liberty CE, of which the trustees are aware, the regulator also became aware of the existence of a third corporate entity, Liberty Developments Designated Activity Charity (“Liberty Developments”).<\/p>\n
The registered address and principal place of business of Liberty Developments is the same as those details for the charity but “its financial statements say that it is involved in the buying and selling of motor vehicles and machinery”.<\/p>\n
The regulator told the High Court that a letter of association was filed with the Companies Registration Office was signed by Mr \u00d3 Snodaigh in his capacity as director of the charity, confirming that the charity had no objection to the incorporation of Liberty Developments event though Liberty Developments is not itself a registered charity.<\/p>\n
The court appointed provisional liquidators to the charity following the application, which was made on an ex-parte basis and after hearing there was no evidence to suggest that the trustees were involved in, or aware of, any alleged criminal activity.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in has also been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court has been told that the Sinn F\u00e9in TD Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh in his capacity as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-669037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669037","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=669037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}