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Declan Ganley

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Declan James Ganley (born 23 July 1968, Watford, Hertfordshire, 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]

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.[3]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Libertas

Main article: Libertas Party

Ganley is the founder[16] and Chairman of Libertas[17], a lobby group which advocated a No vote to the 2008 referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon in Ireland.

Libertas said they were funded by private donations. 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 stated that he had loaned Libertas €200,000 and put in place a credit facility from which Libertas.[18] Loans such as this to groups campaigning in elections and referendums in Ireland are permitted so long as they are genuine.[18]

Ganley argued that "millions of euro came into the Yes campaign from Brussels... to fund this elite agenda here in Ireland"[19].

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. 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] On March 30th Libertas supplied the SIPO with a series of financial documents about its funding[21], as it had always intended to[22].

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]

The Libertas Party and 2009 European Elections

On 3 October 2008, on RTÉ'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 RTÉ, he said that this would be conditional on the group procuring "the necessary resources and find[ing] candidates of the correct calibre".[23]

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." Before this McDowell has denied that he gave advice to Libertas during the run up to the Lisbon referendum.[24]

Ganley visited Brussels in September 2008 and held an open meeting 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. Danish politician Jens-Peter Bonde is reported to be acting as Ganley's advance man in Brussels.[25]

On 1 November 2008, The Irish Times reported that Ganley had registered two companies at Companies Office in Dublin.[26] The two companies were the Libertas Party Ltd and Libertas Foundation Ltd.[26] The memorandum of association of the former says its main object is to "carry on the business of a European political party".[26] The memorandum of association of the latter says its main object is "to act as a European Political Foundation for the Libertas Party".[26]

Libertas 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[27] while the French campaign was announced by Philippe de Villiers on 11 March 2009.[28]

On 14 March 2009, Ganley announced he would stand as a candidate in the Irish North-West constituency.[29]

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.[30]

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.[31]

On 31 March 2009, Ganley announced that Eugenija Sutkiene, a lawyer, would head the Lithuanian list. Lauras Bielinis, a political analyst and advisor to the Lithuanian President, would also stand for Libertas. In addition, Arunas Valinkas, chair of the Lithuanian Parliament and head of the Resurrection Party said his party would cooperate with Libertas.[32]

On 16 April 2009, Ganley launched the Libertas campaign in the Netherlands, headed by political scientist Eline van den Broek.[33]

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.[34]

Libertas application to the European Parliament for official status as a pan-European party

On 27 November 2008, the Irish Times reported that Ganley had confirmed that Libertas had applied to the European Parliament for recognition as a political party at a European level which included a portion of funding from the €17 million pool 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. European political parties can use the funds allocated 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.[35] Libertas said on application that they would not use any funds received until they had received a democratic mandate to do so.

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.[36]

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, which it later published on it's website[37], and that Libertas was "mildly amused that the other Libertas signatories have not been persuaded to suffer from amnesia".[38]

Visit of President Klaus

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.[39] Other guests included French MEP Philippe de Villiers of the "Mouvement Pour La France", Austrian MEP Hans-Peter Martin, Denmark's Jens-Peter Bonde, and Poland’s Dariusz Sobkow.[39] The AP press associatiion reported that Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin called some of Klaus's views "ridiculous, shallow and bogus". 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"[40] 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".[41]

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.[42][43] 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.[42] At one point, the chairman threatened to halt the session in order to maintain order.[42] Mr Ganley spoke strongly against the Lisbon Treaty warning politicians not to hold a second referendum to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.[44] 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[44] and that all of Europe must be given a vote on it.[45]

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"."[46]

See also

References

  1. ^ Declan Ganley: Ireland's Mysterious Mr. No, The Independent, 10 June 2008
  2. ^ What will international man of mystery Declan Ganley do next? SundayTribune. June 15, 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
  3. ^ Profile: Declan Ganley. TimesOnline, May 25, 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  4. ^ a b c Nationality of Libertas founder was listed as British in UK records, The Irish Times, 21 Sept 2008
  5. ^ "Declan J. Ganley". www.rivada.com. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  6. ^ a b Daly, Gavin (2006-03-19). "US magazine claims Ganley set to become billionaire". The Sunday Business Post.
  7. ^ a b [1] CNBC Profile of Declan Ganley retrieved 2 November 2008
  8. ^ a b c Declan Ganley - The King of 45 000 Albanian ShareHolders, Albanian Canadian League Information Service
  9. ^ [2] The Irish Times 30 October 2008
  10. ^ Liam Lawlor Obituary by David McKittrick The Independent, 24 October 2005
  11. ^ [3] Irish Times Breaking News, 29 October 2008, Retrieved 2 November 2008
  12. ^ a b c "MT280907.ecl" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-10-27. Evidence of Frank Dunlop and Declan Ganley at Flood Tribunal, 28 September 2007 Cite error: The named reference "flood-tribunal1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b Ganley, Declan (2003). "Europe's Constitutional Treaty: A Threat to Democracy and How to Avoid It". Foreign Policy Research Institute. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  15. ^ New York Times, 26 February 2002
  16. ^ a b c "Libertas and its letters from Austria". The Sunday Business Post. 2008-05-25. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
  17. ^ "How One Man Plans to Sink the European Union". TIME. 2009-04-15.
  18. ^ a b "Ganley said he gave a €200,000 loan to Libertas". Irish Times. 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
  19. ^ "On the Late Late Show, 3 October 2008". RTÉ. 2008-10-03. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  20. ^ Libertas fails to co-operate with loans inquiry. Irish Times, 14 March 2009.
  21. ^ http://www.independent.ie/national-news/libertas-refuses-to-go-public-on-party-funding-1692017.html
  22. ^ http://www.libertas.eu/bg/news/news-ireland/69-libertas-response-to-the-sipo-report-of-march-13th
  23. ^ "RTÉ News: Libertas may run candidates for Europe". Rte.ie. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
  24. ^ [4] Miriam Lord, Irish Times, 4 October 2008
  25. ^ Irish Times, 20 September 2008
  26. ^ a b c d The Irish Times, 1 November 2008
  27. ^ Ganley launches British arm of Libertas. Irish Times, 11 March 2009.
  28. ^ Right-wing parties rally under Libertas banner. Irish Times, 12 March 2009.
  29. ^ Ganley: I'll work to win voters' trust. Irish Times, 14 March 2009.
  30. ^ New political group launched. Times of Malta, 21 March 2009. Retieved 22 March 2009.
  31. ^ Former Latvian PM to stand for Libertas. Irish Times, March 30, 2009. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  32. ^ Libertas announces election plans for Lithuania. From Libertas.eu, March 31, 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
  33. ^ Libertas picks leader for Dutch campaign. Dutch News, April 16, 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
  34. ^ "It's called democracy, you know?" Interview with Declan Ganley, E!Sharp, January 21, 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  35. ^ "Libertas applies for European political party funds", The Irish Times, 2008-11-27
  36. ^ Irish Times, 2009-02-10, "Second nominated backer says he does not support Libertas".
  37. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/libertaseu/3252709261/
  38. ^ Irish Times, 2009-02-10, "Second nominated backer says he does not support Libertas".
  39. ^ a b Ganley's dinner party was a meeting of minds, The Irish Times, 13 November 2008
  40. ^ Poll: Half of Czechs believe Klaus harms Czech Republic's image, ČTK, 18 November 2008
  41. ^ [5] Sunday Independent, 16 November 2008
  42. ^ a b c Press Association, 2008-11-18
  43. ^ Irish Times, 18 November 2008
  44. ^ a b Government 'would risk collapse' in Lisbon rerun, The Independent, 19 November 2008
  45. ^ Ganley: All citizens should have EU constitution vote, Belfast Telegraph, 18 November 2008
  46. ^ "Ganley threatens to sue Labour TD over Libertas allegations", The Irish Times 1 December 2008



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