The High Court has placed a charity under provisional liquidation at the request of Ireland's Charities Regulator, as a Garda investigation into money laundering continues, according to RTE.ie.
Shane McCarthy and Cormac O'Connor of KPMG were named joint provisional liquidators of Liberties Recycling and Development Company Limited. The regulator applied for the order as part of a petition to wind the charity up, and a further High Court hearing on that application is scheduled for November.
The appointment hands independent control of the organisation to the liquidators with immediate effect. According to the regulator, the move is meant to allow transitional arrangements for the charity's vulnerable service users and staff, and to protect its assets so they can be passed to another charity with a comparable purpose where that proves possible.
Why it matters
The case touches a charity that describes its work as providing employment and training to people affected by drugs, and it involves a sitting member of the Dáil. Sinn Féin has confirmed that its TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh chairs Liberty Recycling, and the party has said it backs the Garda and Charities Regulator inquiries.
The regulator has also drawn a distinction that matters for how the case is read: it says it has seen no evidence that the charity's trustees are connected to the activities under investigation by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. Its decision to seek liquidation rested instead on its assessment of how the charity was run, formed from the trustees' dealings with the regulator and their response to the situation. In the regulator's view, there was little or no effective management or oversight of the charity's activities.
Searches, seizures and the regulator's assessment
Gardaí from the money-laundering unit carried out searches in Dublin and in the south and east of the country last week. RTE.ie reports that they seized two BMW X5 vehicles valued at about a quarter of a million euro, along with Louis Vuitton bags, Rolex watches and jewellery estimated at €40,000. The total value of assets seized is put at around €300,000.
The regulator said it sought the High Court order after engaging with the trustees once the Garda investigation and seizures came to light.
Liberties Recycling runs shops in several counties and handles the recycling of clothes and other goods. Its website, as described by RTE.ie, presents the clothes recycling operation as a way of creating employment and training for local people affected by drugs. The Westmeath Examiner reported that the charity has an outlet in Mullingar.
Sinn Féin's response and plans for a linked company
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said Ó Snodaigh has restated his support for the Garda investigation, which is being conducted alongside the Charities Regulator's office, into an organisation where he serves as a board member and chair. According to the statement, the TD has been in regular contact with the regulator's office over the past week since news of the investigation emerged, and remains available to help gardaí with their inquiries.
The spokesperson said full executive control of the charity now sits with the provisional liquidators, whom Ó Snodaigh met earlier on the day of the court decision. Ó Snodaigh said the liquidators, the regulator and the Department of Social Protection must now give priority to supporting the charity's vulnerable service users, community employment workers and employees, and that every possible step should be taken to preserve jobs or find alternative community employment places for affected workers.
He also said he intends to call an emergency board meeting of an associated company, Liberty Global Exports Company Limited, to examine all options, including winding that company up. The spokesperson said Ó Snodaigh held talks with the liquidator and with Department of Social Protection officials in an effort to make sure service users and staff are supported through the liquidator's consultative period, and that the liquidators agreed to his request to hold a series of meetings with the charity's staff and stakeholders the following day.
The next formal step is the November High Court hearing on the winding-up petition, while the Garda inquiry continues.
