Funds seized from companies linked to associates of Republican Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) after an investigation into a fuel laundering scheme are the proceeds of crime, the High Court has ruled. Cab sought the orders after it started an investigation into fuel laundering in 2012 which the judge said “centred on the Murphy family of Hackballscross, Dundalk, Co Louth, and their various associates”. The judge said she was satisfied the firms were, along with several others, part of an “overall elaborate fuel laundering scheme” which generated monies that were the proceeds of crime or criminal activity. There were several common threads linking the companies to the fuel laundering. The judge said fuel laundering was a covert operation behind the curtain of legitimate trade where numbered bank accounts are opened in the names of different oil-related businesses.

Source: The Irish Times April 16, 2018 18:33 UTC