Developer denies IRA money links

Peter Curistan is taking legal action against the government

A Belfast property developer has denied that he or his company are linked to IRA money laundering.

Peter Curistan is taking legal action after the Sheridan Group was dropped as the preferred developer of public lands in the centre of Belfast.

His lawyers said a probe into the accounts of his firm was poisoned by baseless accusations.

A three-day legal challenge into the Department for Social Development decision has begun in the High Court.

Sheridan was the preferred developer for the huge Queen's Quay riverside project.

Mr Curistan was the subject of claims made by DUP MP Peter Robinson under parliamentary privilege in February last year.

He has challenged Mr Robinson to repeat these allegations outside the House of Commons.

'Quality projects'

His lawyer told Monday's hearing that the businessman had been prepared to throw open the company books in order to receive a clean bill of health.

"Neither Sheridan nor Mr Curistan have anything to fear. Rather they have everything to gain from lifting the cloud of suspicion that then descended upon them," said the lawyer.

"No investigation was carried out by the Department for Social Development or (co-respondents) Laganside Corporation and consequently Sheridan had everything to fear.

"If the risk remained that Sheridan was laundering dirty IRA money then the government in general and the department would become complicit in a criminal enterprise."

He told Mr Justice Gillen that Belfast's Odyssey complex was just one of a number of developments which proved the firm's ability to deliver quality, ambitious projects.