{"id":410911,"date":"2025-09-09T16:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410911\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T16:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:48:15","slug":"two-ni-business-figures-accused-of-nama-fraud-set-for-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410911\/","title":{"rendered":"Two NI business figures accused of NAMA fraud set for trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The charges are related to the sale of a loan book held by Ireland&#8217;s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA)<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Frank-Cushnahan.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Frank Cushnahan<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The trial of two prominent NI business figures accused of fraud over a &#8216;NAMA&#8217; loan deal is to start later this month, a court heard today (Tuesday).<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Frank Cushnahan (83), of Alexandra Gate in <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/holywood\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Holywood<\/a>, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/co-down\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Co Down<\/a>, and Ian Coulter (54), of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/templepatrick\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Templepatrick<\/a> Road in Ballyclare, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/co-antrim\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Co Antrim<\/a>, deny all charges against them. The charges are related to the sale of a loan book held by Ireland&#8217;s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) which was set up by the Irish Government to deal with toxic property loans after the Republic of Ireland&#8217;s banking crisis in 2008. NAMA&#8217;s Northern Ireland loan book was sold to a US Investment fund in 2014. Mr Cushnahan, a business consultant and former member of NAMA&#8217;s Northern Ireland advisory committee, is charged with fraud for allegedly failing to disclose information to NAMA between April 1, 2013 and November 7, 2013.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/JS67704234.jpg\" alt=\"Ian Coulter\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Ian Coulter<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He is also charged with an offence of fraud by false representation on April 3, 2014. Mr Coulter, a solicitor, is alleged to have made a false representation to a law firm on or around September 11, 2014. He is also charged with making an article in connection with a fraud, namely a \u00a39m invoice, on or about August 13, 2014 and two counts of concealing or transferring criminal property between September 15, 2014 and December 1, 2014. At <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/belfast-crown-court\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Belfast Crown Court<\/a> today (Tuesday), senior prosecution counsel Jonathan Kinnear KC said the trial was ready to proceed. He told Madam Justice McBride: &#8220;The trial is listed to start on September 22.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;In terms of trial readiness, the trial is effectively ready. Everything that was required to be done has been done.&#8221; Mr Kinnear added that &#8220;a rough provisional timetable&#8221; for the running order for witnesses during the trial has also been completed. &#8220;We are working on the basis that we are starting this trial on September 22 unless Your Ladyship informs us otherwise,&#8221; said Mr Kinnear. The trial is expected to last up to eight weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"hereLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"> and <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=1342b3be-3db3-461a-a6b4-c60bfcaa13da&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"sign up to our daily newsletterLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a><\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charges are related to the sale of a loan book held by Ireland&#8217;s National Asset Management Agency&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[82018,88580,30,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-410911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast-crown-court","9":"tag-co-down","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115175365886014935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}