Irish Billionaire salivates for Telemedia, but no Irish luck made him rich

denis o'brien

Earlier in the newscast we reported that Telemedia employees have an interest in acquiring majority shares in the company. That’s one minor group, but the other massive telecom company with whom negotiations have been going on is Digicel Caribbean. Digicel Caribbean is primarily owned by the Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien. Digicel in turn is owned by Digicel Limited based in Bermuda, which as you know is a tax haven. Our geek squad did some research on O’Brien and came up with some rather interesting information that showed it wasn’t just the luck of the Irish that allowed him to gain his billions. According to available data, the Irishman is also a permanent resident of Malta. Why Malta? Well, that is because Malta charges no tax on worldwide assets or income brought in by permanent residents. And residency for tax purposes means renting or buying a property with minimum value and visiting Malta at least once within one year of becoming a resident. And according to one online report, O’Brien was also a tax resident of Portugal and when he sold Esat Telecom in 2000, the sale enabled him to avoid Irish capital gains tax. The government of Portugal subsequently closed the loophole in capital gains tax after which he moved to Malta. These revelations are significant because the government has persistently whipped up hysteria on the issue of tax avoidance.  What is also very questionable and suspicious is whether or not this type of accommodation is under consideration to sweeten O’Brien’s teapot.