Full coverage: Carval

CarVal agreed to buy €800m worth of home loans from Ulster Bank two years ago. In the process, the US vulture fund has now revealed the discount obtained, its tax strategy – and the risk it sees Sinn Féin posing to its investors.

The US vulture fund had acquired many large portfolios of distressed loans in Ireland in the past, but never so many secured on people’s homes. Why did CarVal do it this time, and where does this leave borrowers?

Vehicles used by US vulture funds to purchase debt portfolios from KBC and the former ACC in the past two years have just filed accounts for the first time, channelling healthy tax-free income to their investors.

A month-long investigation reveals the inner workings of CarVal’s Irish buying spree – the structures, the discounts, the tax tactics and the profits. It also reveals the ongoing use of the Section 110 tax shelter, with the vulture fund now using it to buy assets all over the world.

Auctioneer and restaurateur Peter White denies CarVal’s claim that he implemented a “wholesale” asset dissipation scheme worth millions of euro.