Full coverage: Vulture funds

For the past four years, vehicles established in Ireland to hoover up debt secured on Irish property have been banned from paying tax-free profit-participating interest. New accounts show how this rule has applied to portfolios sold by Nama and Ulster Bank.

Through a Luxembourg SPV, Apollo acquired debts connected to Pat Doherty’s Harcourt Developments. However, much of those debts are due to be repaid, prompting its accountants to raise questions about the company’s finances.

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.

Debt collector turned vulture fund Cabot Financial has been growing its Mediterranean business out of Dublin, illustrating the wider trend among US distressed debt investors to use Ireland as a base for European portfolio securitisation.

In a major report, we investigate the vulture fund's 52 Irish companies to unveil the property deals, the profits and the tax bills. Using Ireland as a base for aggressive European distressed debt deals, it is also moving into property development in Dublin.

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.

To understand how vulture fund Cerberus manages billions of euros’ worth of Irish assets, you must look to Baarn, a small town 45 minutes away from Amsterdam. From there, you will see just how the fund is managing to flatline its tax bill, a two-month investigation by The Currency can reveal.

When US investment firm Marathon Asset Management swooped in on Irish property after the financial crisis, three Debenhams stores entered its portfolio. The landlord is now suing the retailer.

Goldman Sachs, the titan of global finance, has spent more than €8bn buying distressed debt portfolios. Following a two-month investigation, we unlock the structures and the securitisation vehicles used to house its new Irish empire.

The populist noise surrounding so-called cuckoo funds is merely deflecting attention away from the aggressive tactics being deployed by old-fashioned vulture funds. They are gaming the system, and the state continues blindly selling to them.