Businessman disputes claim by Charities Regulator in Liberty Recycling High Court case

A Dublin-based cleaning products company that exports across Europe has strongly denied claims made by the Charities Regulator that it is controlled by a senior staff member at Liberty Recycling.The Rag Man told The Irish Times that, despite assertions by the regulator to the High Court last week during its action to have provisional liquidators appointed to Liberty Recycling, it is not controlled by a senior staff member at Liberty and has not operated from the charity’s premises.The Charities Regulator declined to respond to queries about how it closely linked the privately owned company to Liberty Recycling in legal documents. It said it could offer no further comment as a Garda inquiry into the charity was continuing.Liberty Recycling is the subject of a Garda money laundering investigation which has resulted in its closure, with just over 100 people laid off, the charity’s bank accounts frozen and its records and computers seized.READ MOREThe man who owns The Rag Man, Philip Moloney jnr, of Stannaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, is the son of Philip Moloney, the chief executive of Liberty Recycling, also with an address on Stannaway Road. Moloney jnr said the description by the regulator of his company was “factually incorrect”.In documents prepared for the High Court, the regulator said The Rag Man business was “registered by an employee (of Liberty Recycling)” and “lists its business location as the charity’s premises in Bluebell”.“This business seems to supply rags and paper rolls used as cleaning products,” the regulator said of The Rag Man.The regulator also invited the trustees of Liberty Recycling to explain why The Rag Man, and a company called Liberty Developments, “appear to be controlled by an employee of the charity, operate from the charity’s premises and have overlapping business activities”.Moloney jnr said, via Hanahoe solicitors, that apart from working at Liberty Recycling more than a decade ago “on a limited basis” as a teenager, he is not connected to it and was never on the charity’s staff.He had used Liberty Recycling’s main premises in Bluebell, Dublin 12, as the address when registering his own company in 2015 “for convenience”. He did so because, at that time, he had not developed The Rag Man business “to the point of securing separate premises”.He described as “an administrative omission” the fact his business had continued to be officially registered to Liberty Recycling’s headquarters in Bluebell until last month, but insisted his company never operated from the charity’s depot and offices.Company records show The Rag Man’s official address was changed to that of a legal and financial advisory company’s offices in Dublin’s south inner city on October 20th. This coincided with the first of two days of Garda searches as part of the Liberty Recycling investigation, resulting in the seizure of luxury vehicles and other items valued at almost €300,000.However, Moloney jnr said the change of address was “not connected with the Garda investigation”, though he became aware of the “issue concerning the registered address” due to the media’s coverage of the developments. He then immediately moved to change the address. He said he is in no way included in the Garda investigation and, as far as he was aware, gardaí understood his company was separate from Liberty Recycling, even though it was officially registered to the same address for more than a decade.The Rag Man exports rags or clothes, as well as paper towels, all over Europe. It describes itself as an “Irish-owned firm operating throughout Europe supplying industrial cleaning materials”. It also says it is “Ireland’s leading supplier of rags” and is “fast becoming one of the leading wiper merchants in Europe”.The regulator last week successfully applied to the High Court for a provisional liquidator, KPMG, to be appointed to Liberty Recycling. The charity’s network of shops around the State has closed and more than 100 tonnes of textiles are stranded in its Bluebell depot. Its nearly 500 clothes banks across the country are full, with no money available to pay to have them emptied.