Ex-NAMA employee’s new firm bought loans from agency

The Irish Independent has Reported that: THE current employer of the most senior official yet to leave NAMA has bought property loans from the state agency, the Irish Independent has learned.

The news is set to reignite concerns that despite overseeing €70bn of highly sensitive debtor information the state agency has no rules stopping staff leaving for lucrative private sector jobs without a “cooling- off period” or restrictions on where they can work.

Firm

The National Asset Management Agency’s (NAMA) former head of lending Graham Emmett left the state agency in January.

He now works as a partner at UK-based real estate investor ICG Longbow. The same property firm bought property loans from NAMA in August this year.

Sources told the Irish Independent that Mr Emmett had no involvement in the deal between NAMA and ICG Longbow, which closed before he joined his new firm and around seven months after he had resigned from the state agency.

There is no question of any wrongdoing by any party to the transaction.

ICG Longbow bought part of the multi-million debt used to finance the acquisition of London’s Ramada Docklands Hotel from NAMA in a deal that is understood to have closed in August. Source: The Irish Independent.