The Killea development pictured in March 2011
FOUR men behind a busted Donegal property development have ‘retired’ after being at the centre of a tax probe.
Accountancy firm KPMG said late last night four senior Belfast partners have left the company.
It said the executives, who are currently being investigated by the British Revenue (HMRC), have “now retired following a period of administrative leave”.
The four partners are Jon D’Arcy, head of audit and transactions for KPMG in the north, Eamonn Donaghy, who heads the Belfast tax practice, Paul Hollway, head of corporate finance and Arthur O’Brien, an audit and advisory partner.
The firm said it had “co-operated fully with the HMRC investigation which relates solely to the personal affairs of the four individuals and is not related to the firm’s business or the business of its clients”.
The four employees were arrested in the North last November and were questioned over allegations of tax evasion and their involvement with a company set up to finance property development on both sides of the border.
It is understood the investigation centred on the finances and tax arrangements of Jeap.
One of the development companies they backed started building at Killea in early 2011 when the company folded.
A total of 34 houses were supposed to have been built, but many only had their foundations put down before the property market crashed.
The partners went on administrative leave after the investigation first came to light.
Jeap was set up by the four partners in 2005 with each owning 25 per cent.
Its most recent set of accounts, abridged statements for the year to the end of March 2014, show it had racked up losses of Stg£4.3 million. It had just £391 cash in the bank.
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