Declan Ganley
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Declan James Ganley (born 23 July 1968, Watford, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom) is a businessman and political activist behind the Libertas movement.[1]
British-born of Irish parents, he returned with his parents to live in Glenamaddy, County Galway, Republic of Ireland, at the age of 13, and today lives in Abbeyknockmoy, County Galway with his American wife Delia and their four young children.[2]
[edit] Early life
According to his old school teacher, Seamus Walsh, Ganley had difficulty in adapting to the Irish school system as he did not speak Irish and went no further than the Leaving Certificate. At the age of 14, he showed more interest in selling turf from the bog and buying shares on the stock market.
After leaving school, he initially worked on building sites in London but soon found a job as a tea boy at an insurance company. His business life started soon afterwards when he successfully traded in Soviet aluminium which he shipped to Rotterdam via Latvia at a huge profit.[3]
[edit] Nationality controversy
The issue of Ganley's nationality was raised during "bitter exchanges" on RTÉ Radio One's News at One between Ganley and Irish Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, on 18 September 2008.[4] Roche said that Ganley "likes to wrap himself in the tricolour whenever he faces any form of query or interrogation on issues like this."[4] Roche said that Ganley stated that his nationality was British on company registration forms until 2006. Ganley told the Irish Times that the recording of his nationality as British in UK tax documents was a "data input error", although it subsequently transpired that the documents in question had been prepared by hand and had listed Ganley as British for multiple years. Commenting on the controversy, Ganley said "I do not have a British passport. I am an Irishman, and I resent anybody trying to tell me that I am not."[4]
[edit] Business life
Ganley is currently chairman and CEO of Rivada Networks,[5] a US defence contractor specializing in military telecommunications systems. In the past, he has been involved in business ventures selling Russian aluminium and in the Latvian forestry sector.[6] In the early 1990s Mr Ganley founded Kipelova Forestry Enterprises which became one of the largest forestry companies in the Russian Federation.[7][8] He sold the company in 1997 for an undisclosed sum. [7] In 1996, his company Ganley International founded the Anglo-Adriatic Investment Fund, an Albanian financial fund formed to collect and invest privatisation vouchers.[8] Back in Ireland, Ganley had owned the high-profile jewellery website, Adornis.com, which collapsed after the downturn in the technology sector. A 2006 interview in CNBC’s European Business magazine suggested Ganley had a personal worth of €300 million.[6]
[edit] Liam Lawlor and the Mahon Tribunal
Declan Ganley gave evidence before the Mahon Tribunal officially called the "Tribunal of Inquiry Into Certain Planning Matters and Payments" on 27 September 2007. On the last day of the hearings, 29 October 2008, evidence of the late Liam Lawlor, who died in a car crash in Moscow, was read into the record by Senior Counsel for the tribunal Pat Quinn. Lawlor had stated that "he received £30,000 in political contributions from Declan Ganley’s business, Ganley International, in 1996."[9][10]. According to The Irish Times report of the proceedings "Mr Quinn also said an invoice dated February 1997 from Mr Ganley’s business, with an address at 128 Mount Street, London, W1K 3NU, was used by Mr Lawlor when providing documentation to cover for a £25,000 payment from the disgraced lobbyist and former Fianna Fáil election agent, Frank Dunlop."[11] In his own evidence before the tribunal on 27 September 2008, Ganley said that he had employed Lawlor as a consultant in the 1990s to lobby the Albanian government on behalf of Ganley International.[12] Ganley International subsidiary Anglo-Adraitic Investment Fund was involved in the turbulent Albanian financial market in the 1990s.[8][13] He also stated that the Ganley International invoice which Lawlor presented to Dunlop was a forgery and not a Ganley International invoice.[12] In his evidence before the tribunal, Dunlop confirmed that he had received this invoice from Lawlor.[12]
[edit] US Foreign Policy Research Institute
Ganley has written at least one major article for an American think tank.[14] Ganley's first mention of 'Libertas' was in a paper, Constitutional Treaty; A Threat to Democracy and How to Avoid it, that he wrote for the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[14] The FPRI was founded by Robert Strausz-Hupé, a former US Ambassador and foreign policy adviser to Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon.[15]
[edit] Libertas
Main article:
Libertas PartyGanley is the founder[16] and Chairman of Libertas, a lobby group which advocated a No vote to the 2008 referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon in Ireland.
At the time, Libertas claimed to be funded by private donations, which is perfectly legal, though donations above a certain amount had to be disclosed by the group after the referendum. According to the group, Ganley and his wife donated the maximum amount of €6,300 allowed under Irish law.[16]
On September 19, 2008, speaking on Today FM's (Independent National Radio) "The Last Word" presented by Matt Cooper, Mr. Ganley also admitted lending Libertas €200,000 and putting in place a facility for a larger amount if necessary.[17] He stated that his first loan to the group was for that amount. He later clarified that he had only given one loan.[17] Loans to groups campaigning in elections and referendums in Ireland are permitted so long as they are genuine.[17]
Ganley argued that "millions of euro came into the Yes campaign from Brussels... to fund this elite agenda here in Ireland"[18].
On 3 October 2008, an editorial in The Irish Times suggested that suspicions and allegations about the issue of 'external' donations to Libertas during the Lisbon referendum were justified. The Irish Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) is believed to be investigating these allegations as part of its routine scrutiny of fund-raising and expenditure during elections and referendums.[19] Furthermore, on March 14, 2009, the Irish Times reported that despite numerous requests since June 19, 2008, Libertas had failed to provide information on loans for its referendum campaign to the Standards in Public Office Commission after Libertas had informed the commission of a loan provided by its founder, Declan Ganley.[20]
According to The Sunday Business Post, Ganley’s anti-Lisbon Treaty group supported a letter-writing campaign to Irish citizens by an Austrian political group, Rettet Österreich (Save Austria), involving some "far-right and neo-Nazi groups". However, Rettet Österreich has denied that it is an "extreme right wing group". John McGuirk of Libertas confirmed that they had agreed to the campaign.[16]
[edit] Links with US military
In October 2008, media reports,[21] questioned the financial sources of the his anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign, asking who his donors were and what was the real motive of his campaign. It has been established that Ganley personally has strong financial links with the American military and homeland security.[22] A number of the contracts which he has with the Pentagon - which he has now admitted amount to at least $200 million - appear[23] to be on a closed, non-competitive basis, potentially enabling him to earn significant profits. Ganley maintains a substantial property in Washington DC, as a base for his liaison with US political and business circles. It is apparently registered in the name of his wife, Delia Paterek of Staten Island.
In April 2008, Libertas announced that Ulick McEvaddy was "joining the No to Lisbon Campaign". McEvaddy, like Ganley, is a wealthy individual with links to the US military. Both men are CEOs of US-based companies - Omega Air and Rivada Networks - that supply equipment and services to the Pentagon. McEvaddy has a very substantial fleet of DC-10 aircraft which are leased for refuelling and other purposes. His past support for Ireland joining NATO was noted in a debate in Dail Eireann, the Irish parliament, in 1999.[24]
[edit] European Parliament questions on Pentagon contracts, the CIA and Libertas funding
In a point of order on 22 September 2008, Daniel Cohn-Bendit asked the President of the Parliament to investigate media reports that linked Ganley, as principal funder of the Libertas campaign, with the Pentagon and the CIA. The President, Hans-Gert Pöttering, replied: "According to the reports, he now has admitted that he himself has lent €200,000 of his personal assets to his organisation, and it has also been confirmed in the meantime that Mr Ganley has signed contracts with the Pentagon over the execution of military orders amounting to about 200 million - I believe - dollars. Other estimates are much higher." [25]
The President also said that "The facts must be put on the table. We cannot allow Europe to be harmed by people who demand transparency but do not provide it themselves."[25][26]
On RTE Radio One's News at One, on 18 September, the country's Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, noted that Rivada Networks "had secured substantial US government contracts using arrangements instituted to assist tribal corporations in Alaska."[17] The Alaskan Eskimo contracting ruse used for this purpose is described in T. Christian Miller's book on Iraq war contracting, Blood Money, where Ganley is mentioned by name. The Irish Times noted that a company of which Ganley is chief executive, Rivada Pacific, "has secured communications contracts worth $37 million in recent years from the US military, according to the website, www.fedspending.org".[17]
It was reported that the European Parliament is now considering launching "an inquiry to discover whether US agencies actively supported Libertas in the 12 June referendum."[26][27] In the event, the Parliament's governing body decided to let SIPO take the lead in any enquiry, whilst exchanging information with the US Congress on the matter in the interim. According to The Sunday Times, the CIA has denied that it was involved in any covert funding of the Irish anti-Lisbon campaign. A spokesman for the agency was reported as saying: “The suggestion is not only wrong, but ludicrous.” [28] However, despite this denial there is a determination among European Union leaders that there is an investigation into "claims the CIA were mixed up in the referendum campaign".[29] Only days before the June referendum, John Bolton US Ambassador to the UN, stated that Ireland voting for the Lisbon Treaty would be a mistake which could undercut NATO. The Telegraph reported that he "argued that if the EU has its own military capability, people will think NATO is redundant and Europe "can take care of their own defence".[30]
The US Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, has denied that Ganley and/or Libertas received support from the U.S. government.[31].
[edit] The Libertas Party and 2009 European Elections
On 3 October 2008, on RTE's The Late Late Show, Ganley confirmed what he had suggested on several occasions before - that Libertas may run candidates in the 2009 European Parliament elections (4-7 June 2009). According to RTE, he said that this would be conditional on the group procuring "the necessary resources and find[ing] candidates of the correct calibre".[32]
The Irish Times recently reported that Ganley held a meeting in late September with former Progressive Democrats leader and former Taniste Michael McDowell at which Ganley reported on "the progress he was making in Europe." McDowell has denied that he gave advice to Libertas during the run up to the Lisbon referendum.[33]
Ganley visited Brussels in September 2008 and held a meeting with sympathisers in the European Parliament. MEPs who attended and showed public support came from the Eurosceptic European Parliament group called IND/DEM, and included Marek Jurek, of the Poland's Right of the Republic party who resigned from the Polish parliament two years ago when it failed to amend the Constitution in a vote that would have outlawed "abortion in the case of rape and when a mothers’ health is threatened"[34] Danish politician Jens-Peter Bonde is reported to be acting as Ganley's advance man in Brussels.[35]
On 1 November 2008, The Irish Times reported that Ganley had registered two companies at Companies Office in Dublin.[36] The two companies were the Libertas Party Ltd and Libertas Foundation Ltd.[36] The memorandum of association of the former says its main object is to "carry on the business of a European political party".[36] The memorandum of association of the latter says its main object is "to act as a European Political Foundation for the Libertas Party".[36] The terms "European political party" and "European political foundation" (more formally, a "political party at European level"[37][38] and "political foundation at European level"[39][40]) have a specific meaning in an EU context and such parties and foundations are funded and regulated by the European Union. Qualification for EU funding requires the party to have achieved an electoral threshold in at least 25% (seven or more of the current 27) of the EU member states.[40][37] Both companies are allowed to pay interest at a rate not exceeding 5 per cent on loans received from directors or other members of the companies. They are also empowered to "promote freedom of contact" and contribute funds to any body that resists interference in businesses by "any strike movement or organisation".[36]
Libertas has announced its intention to extend its party's representation to all 27 EU member states. The British Libertas party was launched on 10 March 2009 under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Robin Matthews[41] while the French campaign was announced by Philippe de Villiers on 11 March 2009.[42]
On 14 March 2009, Ganley announced he would stand as a candidate in the Irish North-West constituency.[43]
On 21 March 2009, Ganley launched Libertas Malta with Mary Gauci as leader announcing she will be contesting the European Parliament elections on its behalf.[44]
On 28 March 2009, Ganley launched Libertas Latvia with Guntars Krasts, a former prime minister and currently an MEP, heading a list of eight candidates covering all nine seats allocated to Latvia in the European Parliament elections.[45]
[edit] Ganley's political position
In an in-depth interview in January 2009, Ganley explained that he was strongly pro-European and stood out for democracy, accountability and transparency. He stated that the reason he was opposed to the Lisbon Treaty was that it did not move Europe closer to its citizens but provided powers "to institutions in Brussels that the citizen can never hold accountable". Despite being labelled a Eurosceptic, he said he believed in "a Europe that can stand up and have the ambition and courage to lead the world" and that Libertas would be saying: "European economic recovery and leadership is going to come from individuals, ... from the people. Only when they get engaged with the European project and make it their project and allow it to belong to all of us across Europe is this thing going to really succeed.[46]
[edit] Libertas application for European Parliament funding
On 27 November 2008, the Irish Times reported that Ganley had confirmed that Libertas had applied to the European Parliament for funding from the of €17 million it provides to promote the "European nature of the European elections". Ganley refused to name any of the elected representatives he said had agreed to support Libertas' application for the EU funding. European political parties can use this money to finance "campaigns conducted by the political parties at European level in the context of the European Parliament". The money cannot be used to fund national candidates or parties.[47]
[edit] Controversy over EU Registration of Libertas
On February 5, 2009, the Irish Times reported the decision of the European Parliament to rescind its earlier recognition of Libertas as a political party. Under EU regulations, Libertas required the signatures of seven members of national parliaments in order that it could to register and become eligible to receive EU funding of around EUR200,000. Of the seven signatories supplied by Libertas, two, Igor Grazin of Estonia and Mincho Kuminev of Bulgaria, denied signing any documents in support of Libertas.[48]
In response to the allegations of registration fraud, Libertas released a statement claiming that it had documents of support signed by both Grazin and Kuminev and that Libertas was "mildly amused that the other Libertas signatories have not been persuaded to suffer from amnesia".[49]
[edit] Visit of President Klaus, Libertas and Eurosceptics
On Tuesday 11 November 2008, Ganley hosted a private dinner in honour of Václav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic who was on a state visit to Ireland.[50] Other guests included French MEP Philippe de Villiers of the "Mouvement Pour La France", Austrian Eurosceptic MEP Hans-Peter Martin, Jens-Peter Bonde, a longstanding Danish Eurosceptic, and Poland’s Dariusz Sobkow.[50] According to the Irish Times, “Sobkow is about to join Libertas full time and is central to Ganley's plans to project the Eurosceptic message of Libertas into Polish affairs.” Philippe de Villiers is, according to the Irish Times, the most Islamophobic French politician and has equated Islam with terrorism.[50] At the meeting , Klaus stated his support for Ganley's Libertas party and a parallel between anti-European activists and the Soviet-era anti-communist dissidents.[51] The AP press associatiion reported that Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin called some of Klaus's views "ridiculous, shallow and bogus,"[51] According to the Prague Daily Monitor a a STEM poll revealed that "three-fourths of Czechs believe that President Vaclav Klaus should not present his private views abroad regardless of the government's position, and a half of them say Klaus, with his opinions, harms the image of the Czech Republic"[52] President Klaus described the Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Martin as being a "hypocrite" while the junior Minister for European Affairs stated that Klaus' remarks on his state visit were "stomach churning" and "gratuitously insulting".[53]
[edit] Joint Oireachtas Committee
Ganley appeared at a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Ireland's Future in the EU comprising members of both houses of the Irish parliament giving his views and being asked questions by Irish TDs and Senators.[54][55] The committee is hearing presentations from those who opposed and supported the Lisbon treaty and people to air their views on Ireland's interaction with the European Union. The meeting was heated at points; PA reports that Ganley threw his copy of the Lisbon Treaty on the floor.[54] At one point, the chairman threatened to halt the session in order to maintain order.[54] Mr Ganley spoke strongly against the Lisbon Treaty warning politicians not to hold a second referendum to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.[56] He advocated throwing away the Lisbon Treaty and said that Europe needs a constitution of no more than 25 pages which needs to be upfront and honest in what it sets out to achieve[56] and that all of Europe must be given a vote on it.[57]
[edit] Legal threats to Irish politicians
In the last week of November 2008, Ganley's solicitors issued threats of legal action to Irish politicians, including Joe Costello of the Labour Party. This follows comments by Costello regarding Libertas funding. According to the Irish Times "Mr Ganley has threatened to sue Mr Costello for substantial damages, following Mr Costello's charge that the Libertas founder has "a subversive foreign agenda"."[58]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Declan Ganley: Ireland's Mysterious Mr. No, The Independent, 10 June 2008
- ^ What will international man of mystery Declan Ganley do next? SundayTribune. June 15, 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
- ^ Profile: Declan Ganley. TimesOnline, May 25, 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2009.
- ^ a b c Nationality of Libertas founder was listed as British in UK records, The Irish Times, 21 Sept 2008
- ^ "Declan J. Ganley". www.rivada.com. http://www.rhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0922/1221998222102.htmlivada.com/about/keypersonnel/declanjganley.htm. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^ a b Daly, Gavin (2006-03-19). "US magazine claims Ganley set to become billionaire". The Sunday Business Post. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/03/19/story12731.asp.
- ^ a b [1] CNBC Profile of Declan Ganley retrieved 2 November 2008
- ^ a b c Declan Ganley - The King of 45 000 Albanian ShareHolders, Albanian Canadian League Information Service
- ^ [2] The Irish Times 30 October 2008
- ^ Liam Lawlor Obituary by David McKittrick The Independent, 24 October 2005
- ^ [3] Irish Times Breaking News, 29 October 2008, Retrieved 2 November 2008
- ^ a b c "MT280907.ecl" (PDF). http://www.flood-tribunal.ie/images/SITECONTENT_744.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-10-27. Evidence of Frank Dunlop and Declan Ganley at Flood Tribunal, 28 September 2007
- ^ The Rise and Fall of Albania's Pyramid Schemes by Christopher Jarvis, Finance and Development, March 2000, Volume 37, Number 1, retrieved 2 November 2008
- ^ a b Ganley, Declan (December 2003). "Europe’s Constitutional Treaty: A Threat to Democracy and How to Avoid It". Foreign Policy Research Institute. http://www.fpri.org/ww/0405.200312.ganley.euconstitution.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-30.
- ^ New York Times, 26 February 2002
- ^ a b c "Libertas and its letters from Austria". The Sunday Business Post. 2008-05-25. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2008/05/25/story33134.asp. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ a b c d e "Ganley said he gave a €200,000 loan to Libertas". Irish Times. 2008-09-19. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0919/1221773888299.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ "On the Late Late Show, 3 October 2008". RTE. 2008-10-03. http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/av_20081003.html?2431974,null,228. Retrieved on 2008-11-08.
- ^ "Substantial amount of funding for Libertas came from Ganley - The Irish Times - Fri, Oct 03, 2008". Irishtimes.com. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/1003/1222959300759.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ Libertas fails to co-operate with loans inquiry. Irish Times, 14 March 2009.
- ^ "Libertas: US Military Contractors Against Lisbon! - Indymedia Ireland". Indymedia.ie. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87311. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ "US magazine claims Ganley set to become billionaire: ThePost.ie". Archives.tcm.ie. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/03/19/story12731.asp. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ Get Ganley! BBC News Mark Mardell's Euroblog
- ^ "Dáil Debates Official Report -2-11-99". Irlgov.ie. http://www.irlgov.ie/debates-99/2nov99/sect5.htm. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ a b "No campaign in Ireland / Minute of silence for victim of ETA bombing". Europarl.europa.eu. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/008-37657-266-09-39-901-20080919IPR37656-22-09-2008-2008-false/default_en.htm. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ a b MEPs seeking source of Libertas funding by Jamie Smyth, The Irish Times, 23 September 2008
- ^ American military ties to the Lisbon "no" camp? The Economist
- ^ "CIA ‘backed’ Irish battle against Brussels treaty - Times Online". Timesonline.co.uk. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4837672.ece. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ Tackling of EU crisis needs Lisbon Treaty, says Barroso by Jamie Smyth, The Irish Times Thursday, 9 October 2008
- ^ John Bolton: Lisbon Treaty will undermine democracy The Daily Telegraph, 9 Jun 2008
- ^ http://www.state.gov/s/d/2008/112117.htm
- ^ "RTÉ News: Libertas may run candidates for Europe". Rte.ie. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1004/eulisbon.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ [4] Miriam Lord, Irish Times, 4 October 2008
- ^ Irish Examiner, 25 September 2008
- ^ Irish Times, 20 September 2008
- ^ a b c d e The Irish Times, 1 November 2008
- ^ a b EUROPA: Summaries of legislation: The regulations governing political parties and rules regarding their funding at European level
- ^ The European Commission > PreLex > COM (2007) 364 : 2007/0130/COD
- ^ Regulation (EC) No 1524/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2007.
- ^ a b EU in drive to make Brussels more political euobserver.com 2007-05-29
- ^ Ganley launches British arm of Libertas. Irish Times, 11 March 2009.
- ^ Right-wing parties rally under Libertas banner. Irish Times, 12 March 2009.
- ^ Ganley: I'll work to win voters' trust. Irish Times, 14 March 2009.
- ^ New political group launched. Times of Malta, 21 March 2009. Retieved 22 March 2009.
- ^ Former Latvian PM to stand for Libertas. Irish Times, March 30, 2009. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
- ^ "It's called democracy, you know?" Interview with Declan Ganley, E!Sharp, January 21, 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
- ^ "Libertas applies for European political party funds", The Irish Times, 2008-11-27
- ^ Irish Times, 2009-02-10, "Second nominated backer says he does not support Libertas".
- ^ Irish Times, 2009-02-10, "Second nominated backer says he does not support Libertas".
- ^ a b c Ganley's dinner party was a meeting of minds, The Irish Times, 13 November 2008
- ^ a b Irish minister criticises Czech president's meeting with Ganley
- ^ Poll: Half of Czechs believe Klaus harms Czech Republic's image, ČTK, 18 November 2008
- ^ [5] Sunday Independent, 16 November 2008
- ^ a b c Press Association, 2008-11-18
- ^ Irish Times, 18 November 2008
- ^ a b Government 'would risk collapse' in Lisbon rerun, The Independent, 19 November 2008
- ^ Ganley: All citizens should have EU constitution vote, Belfast Telegraph, 18 November 2008
- ^ "Ganley threatens to sue Labour TD over Libertas allegations", The Irish Times 1 December 2008
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