His 83-year old co-accused, former corporate financier Frank Hugh Cushnahan, from Alexandra Gate in Holywood, has had two counts of fraud spanning over a period from April 1 to November 7, 2013 levelled against him.<\/p>\n
Both men have denied the charges levelled against them and it\u2019s the Crown\u2019s case that they were involved in brokering a deal to purchase the Northern Ireland loan book held by the National Assets Management Agency (Nama) and were set to benefit from a multi-million pound success fee.<\/p>\n After he was called to give evidence, Mr Creighton told the jury that he trusted both Cushnahan and Coulter and outlined how, in his opinion, their lives have been destroyed over the past 11 years and how it has been \u201cdevastating for them … and for what?\u201d<\/p>\n Before this, Mr Creighton was questioned about his dealings with both men by Crown barrister Jonathan Kinnear KC.<\/p>\n After confirming he was a company director in a number of property development firms, Mr Creighton was asked how he knew Cushnahan.<\/p>\n He said that they first met around 2007 and that he was \u201ckeen to get to know him because he was a mover and shaker and a dealmaker about the town\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Creighton confirmed that he and Cushnahan had many business dealings over the next few years.<\/p>\n Moving onto 2014, Mr Kinnear asked Mr Creighton about a business meeting he had with Cushnahan in Tughan\u2019s library in Belfast.<\/p>\n The witness said he got a call from someone who had been speaking to Cushnahan who told him to contact Cushnahan as he was \u201cworking on a project which could possibly see the Nama loan book sold\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Creighton said he called Cushnahan who invited him for a meeting which took place at the start of February.<\/p>\n Asked about the topic of conversation, Mr Creighton said Cushanhan told him he was working on a deal to get the loan book refinanced or sold and \u201che asked me could I help with details of my portfolio\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Creighton revealed the information – including the value of assets and the group\u2019s rental income – being sought was \u201creadily available\u201d and that he was handing it out to others as he was seeking to refinance the loans himself.<\/p>\n The witness said that he asked Cushnahan who he was acting for and Cushnahan \u201cwouldn\u2019t disclose\u201d this which didn\u2019t surprise him as he \u201cwould have been quite private in his dealings\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Creighton said that after this meeting, he provided Cushnahan with \u201cportfolio of documents\u201d and that over a five or six week period he received \u201cmore and more questions asked\u201d by \u201cthe third party\u201d via Cushnahan.<\/p>\n He said that providing these requests for information took time and manpower and that \u201cat one point\u201d after providing more information he asked Cushnahan \u2018am I going to get paid for doing this work?\u2019 to make a point as he didn\u2019t want to continue running back and forth with paperwork and to stop the endless enquiries.<\/p>\n When asked what Cushnahan\u2019s response to this was, Mr Creighton said Cushnahan told him \u201cif there was a successful bid he would see if he could get me paid from the successful bidder\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Kinnear then questioned Mr Creighton about a second meeting later in 2014 with Cushnahan.<\/p>\n He said during this meeting \u201cIan Coulter came into the room, just like grabbing a chance to say that no fees could be paid\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Creighton said he assumed this was in relation to his comment about being paid but that it was \u201cno big deal\u201d whether or not he got paid for \u201cproviding paperwork\u201d.<\/p>\n He also confirmed that in December 2014 he was handed an envelope from Cushnahan and was told it was contained a letter \u201calong the lines I wouldn\u2019t be making any claim against Tughans for any payment which I understand relates back to \u2018am I going to get paid for this\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter what Ian Coulter had said, as far as I was concerned the matter was closed so I tore it up.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Kinnear then asked the witness a series of questions including whether he expected to receive a fee from the investment funds interested in purchasing the Northern Ireland loan book or if he had any knowledge of or made any suggestions about a \u00a36m fee.<\/p>\n Mr Creighton answered \u2018no\u2019 to all these questions.<\/p>\n He was also cross-examined by defence barristers representing both men on trial.<\/p>\n When asked by Cushnahan\u2019s barrister Frank O\u2019Donoghue KC if his client was \u201csomebody that you trusted\u201d, Mr Creighton replied \u201cyes, I still do\u201d.<\/p>\n Coulter\u2019s barrister Paddy Taggart then asked the witness about his client with Mr Creighton revealing \u201cI\u2019m still working with Ian Coulter as we speak\u201d.<\/p>\n And when asked if he considered Coulter a \u201cman of integrity\u201d and \u201can honest man\u201d, Mr Creighton said he did.<\/p>\n Referring to the two men in the dock, Creighton told the jury of nine men and three women: \u201cThese two men, over the past 11 years their lives have been destroyed, both professionally and personally.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Cushnahan\u2019s \u201cproud wife\u201d passed away in 2019 and she \u201cnever recovered from the headlines about this whole thing\u201d while Coulter is \u201cno longer a lawyer\u201d and \u201chis proud parents passed away in the middle of all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been devastating for them and for what?\u201d<\/p>\n At hearing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Northern Ireland\u2019s most prominent property developers told a jury today (Tuesday) that the lives of two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[51,188,1144,13136,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-564127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-republic-of-ireland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115532559482804798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564127","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=564127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Knuckledusters](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/5MM6F6IEGBGA7DXX3GEESZ5IH4.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Nun](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/BQYNLJLO25E7BFKMSFVFYGJ7HI.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"NAMA](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/I7NTU3CNCRAFNG6MJHWC2XDAPQ.jpeg\")
Ian Coulter (Alan Lewis – Photopress Belfast\/Photopress Belfast) <\/p>\n