Judges: Ex-Irish leader Ahern took secret payments

[March 22, 2012]  DUBLIN (AP) -- A fact-finding tribunal has ruled that former Prime Minister Bertie Ahern received (EURO)209,779 ($276,000) in secret payments while in office but stopped short of finding him guilty of corruption.

Thursday's finding capped a 15-year probe into political corruption in Ireland. Ahern, who testified to the tribunal in 2007, denied doing anything wrong but resigned from office the following year.

The three judges overseeing the investigation say Ahern's government launched a sustained attack on their work in a bid to thwart their efforts to find the truth.

They say Ahern offered "no truthful account" for how he received money over several years in the 1990s from business friends. Ahern admitted keeping the money in personal safes and failing to pay tax on it.

[Associated Press]

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