A respected Dublin finance professional has formally complained to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) regarding his appointment as a director of a number of fraudulent firms in Ireland without his knowledge or permission.

The businessman was forced to recently lodge filings with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) to correct the register after his name was attached as director to a number of fake firms.

Identity theft is playing an increasing role in the creation of fake firms in Ireland.

A woman in Co Kildare has also been forced to submit filings to the CRO to have her name removed as a director from almost 20 fake firms that were established in the past couple of months.

Her name had also been used without her permission or knowledge.

The Irish Independent has spent the past two months uncovering a web of hundreds of fake firms set up in Ireland since earlier this year. Most also have Chinese directors with addresses in China.

The businessman’s submission to the CRO states that he does not and did not consent to his appointment as director of a number of suspect firms.

“The signature on each of the A1 application forms to facilitate the incorporation of the companies is not mine and has been affixed by someone without my consent or authority,” his filing to the CRO states.

It adds: “The Companies Registration Office has informed me that it considers it is not empowered to investigate the circumstances surrounding my name appearing on the A1 application forms which resulted in my purported appointment as a director to the companies.”

“I have formally complained to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement whom shall investigate my complaints as to same,” it says.

He has been removed as a director of the fake firms.

The CRO has consistently said that it has no role to play in verifying director details.

And even after the tsunami of fake firms has been revealed by the Irish Independent, they remain in existence on the company register.

Fraudsters started setting up the fake companies months ago using the real addresses of legitimate businesses without their knowledge, the Irish Independent discovered.

The fraudsters then migrated to also using the names of real individuals in Ireland, appointing them as directors to the fake firms without their knowledge or permission.

The fraudsters have increasingly been attempting to evade detection by using more realistic names for some of their false businesses, and including an apparent director based in Ireland.

A woman in Co Kildare who was also the victim of identity theft by the fraudsters has also successfully requested that the CRO remove her as a director from almost 20 companies to which she was appointed without her knowledge or permission.