Jury considers verdict in Nama fraud trial

The jury has begun its deliberations in the fraud trial of Belfast businessman Frank Cushnahan.

The 84-year-old defendant has been charged in relation to his role as an adviser to the National Asset Management Agency, known as Nama, which was set up in 2009 after the property crash.

He denies a charge of fraud by failure to disclose information in 2013.

The judge in the trial, Madam Justice McBride, has told the 12-member jury to decide the case on the facts not emotion.

Among the witnesses who gave evidence during the past four months were former Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson and the former Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.

From 2010 to 2013, Cushnahan was an adviser to Nama, earning €1,000 for every meeting he attended.

The prosecution said Cushnahan broke the law while serving on Nama's Northern Ireland Advisory Committee, by not declaring an interest with an American firm called Pimco.

It related to a seven-month period in 2013.

The charge stated that he "dishonestly" failed to tell Nama information which he was under a legal duty to disclose.

It was alleged that he was "providing assistance to Pimco with the proposed purchase of the 'Northern Ireland Loan Book' from Nama, with the intention, by failing to disclose the information to make a gain for himself or another, in breach of section 3 of the Fraud Act 2006".

A defence barrister described the prosecution case as "utterly hopeless".

Frank O'Donoghue KC told the jury that Cushnahan was "completely innocent".

He said the businessman had "facilitated" a meeting between Pimco and Stormont ministers but it did not amount to assistance in a proposed deal.

O'Donoghue said the advisory committee had been a "talking shop" not a decision-making body and there was no legal onus on Cushnahan to make a disclosure about his contact with Pimco.

The defendant chose not to give evidence. His barrister said the jury should not be surprised that an 84-year-old man had chosen not to go into the witness box.

Nama was set up by the Irish government in 2009 to deal with the bad loans of Irish banks, on both sides of the border, after the financial crash.

Nama bought these loans (land, property and associated loans) at a discount and sold them.

The Northern Ireland loan book was packaged into one portfolio, to be sold in one lump. That portfolio was called Project Eagle

Although Cushnahan served on a Nama committee, he was not a member of its board.

Sammy Wilson, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP, insisted he did not receive any money over the sale of Nama's Northern Ireland loan book.

He told the court: "I never got a penny out of it. What I was hoping was to get political kudos out of it."

In the early stages of the trial, it was made clear there was no evidence that Peter Robinson had benefited from any deal.

When he gave evidence in December, Robinson told the court Cushnahan had carried out a number of roles in the public sector in the past four decades.

"He was appointed in the first instance by direct rule ministers. So when they left, they left the furniture … and Frank," Robinson said.

The 12-member jury of nine men and three women was sworn in on 24 September.

They were told to expect the trial to last until December but it has taken longer than expected.