Monday, April 20, 2009

Declan Ganley moved his main business concern to the West Indies in 2005 and refuses to answer any question regarding using tax shelters

The Irish Times Public Affairs correspondent Colm Keena has another report on Declan Ganley and his strange business affairs. Ganleys face is plastered on billboards across Dublin this week in a completely disingenuous ad campaign which states that Ganley has a proven record of job creation juxtaposed with Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen. It would appear that Ganley expects people to believe that he has created and/or could create jobs in Ireland. He admitted to BBC Hardtalk that he only employs "a team" in Ireland. This blogger surmises that that "team" includes his Libertas employees like John McGuirk and David Cochrane of Politics.ie.

Ganley has since 2005 availed of a tax haven in the West Indies for his Rivada Networks. This would seem to have preceded the multi million dollar US Defence contracts that Rivada Pacific received on a no competition basis. By moving his concern off shore he has ensured that the Irish people do not share in his "windfalls". Ireland has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU which Mr. Ganley could have availed of but rather than pay 10% corporate tax to the Irish state he claims to love he took his cash elsewhere.
Irish voters in the North West constituency for the European Union should bear this in mond when the enter the ballot box on 5 June.
Ganley has created a tiny handful of jobs in Ireland over the decades and all related to his running a business that is now off shore or a political party that claims to want greater transparency, accountability and democracy.

Rivada funded the early Libertas by employing Naoise Nunn and David Cochrane to work on creating the brand. It is ironic that a company supplying US Defence interests with communication interests and operating from an off shore location helped create a political movement that has the support of nationalists, far right groups and libertarians across Europe.

This is all too weird for words. Like much else in Ganleys history and something that he acknowledged to Jason O'Toole of the Hot Press , if it was in a novel it would be hard to believe. Sadly the Ganley story is all too real.

Ganley through his spokesperson refused to answer questions yet again.



Ganley moved his stake in Rivada to West Indies

FILINGS IN the Companies Registration Office (CRO) in Dublin show that Declan Ganley’s interest in his Tuam company, Rivada Networks, was transferred to a West Indies company in December 2005, a short time before the Tuam company became a subsidiary of a US company based in Colorado.

The Colorado company is involved in large telecommunications contracts in the US with a range of public organisations including the military. However, the profits arising from this business cannot be ascertained.

Mr Ganley, who is a candidate in the upcoming European elections, was asked by way of a spokesman for his party, Libertas, to provide comment on the filings but declined to do so. The auditors of his companies accounts, Michael Cuddy Co, Athlone, Co Westmeath, did not return a call.

Filings in the CRO for a company called Ganley Corporate Management Ltd show that Mr Ganley held the two issued shares in the company up until December 31st, 2005, when they were transferred to Golden Bay Holdings Ltd, with an address in Nevis, in the British West Indies.

In February 2006 a form B5 was lodged with the Revenue Commissioners Capital Taxes Division and forwarded to the Companies Registration Office, having been stamped by the Revenue capital duty section. This form stated the shares had been allotted to the Caribbean company.

Mr Ganley has in the past said that he used Ganley Corporate Management for the development of business projects.

The annual return for the year to May 16th, 2006, for Rivada Networks Ltd, which is based in Mr Ganley’s home in Tuam, Co Galway, show its 100 issued shares were owned by Ganley Corporate Management Ltd as of the end of that period. The company was incorporated on November 11th, 2005. On that basis, it appears the company was owned by Ganley Corporate Management, and through it by Mr Ganley, up to the end of 2005, when ownership was transferred to Golden Bay Holdings in Nevis.

The Rivada Networks accounts for the year to December 31st, 2006, say the company is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Rivada Networks LLC, of Aeroplaza Drive, Colorado.

It is not known when this company was incorporated and the date when the Irish company became its subsidiary is not given in the accounts.

The accounts also state that the directors of the Tuam company, Declan Ganley and James O’Reilly, had no interest in the shares of the parent company at the beginning or end of the 2006 year.

The various accounts filed by Rivada Networks, Tuam, indicate little by way of commercial activity by the company. Its accounts continued to state that neither Mr Ganley nor Mr O’Reilly had any interest in its US parent up to October of last year, when Mr Ganley was asked about the fact. He declined to comment, but a week later a new set of accounts for the 2007 year was filed in which it was stated that the two men did have an interest in the US parent. However, the accounts for earlier years have not been amended.

The new 2007 accounts state that the Rivada group was restructured during that year. On March 1st, Rivada Networks LLC became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rivada Networks International LLC, of Delaware, as did Rivada Networks of Tuam. The accounts state that Mr Ganley had a 45.902 per cent shareholding in Rivada Networks LLC at the outset of 2007, and a 43.2071 per cent shareholding in Rivada Networks International at the end of the year.

Mr O’Reilly’s shareholdings went from 4.1966 per cent of the original parent at the outset of the year, to 4.1422 per cent in the new parent at the end of the year. It is not known who else has shares in Rivada other than Mr Ganley and Mr O’Reilly.

The statement that Mr Ganley had no interest in the parent company of Rivada Networks at the time when it was apparently owned by Golden Bay Holdings is in keeping with the filings for Ganley Corporate Management Ltd. The accounts for the year to the end of 2007 state he had no interest in the company’s parent and the annual return for the year to September 2008 shows Ganley Corporate Management is still owned by Golden Bay Holdings.

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