SOCA has been granted a court order to take control of properties and bank accounts belonging to Sean Gerard Hughes of Aghadavoyle Road, Dromintee.
Hughes has claimed that the investigation of his finances is “politically motivated” and was to distract focus from the Democratic Unionist Party’s difficulties over the transfer of police and justice powers.
The assets frozen include eight houses in South Armagh, an apartment in South Belfast, the proceeds of the sale of three other houses in South Armagh and a number of bank accounts.
Hughes said he has just two houses, a former Housing Executive property and a new home he had recently built on the family farm.
The agency has also taken control of assets belonging to 10 other people in the south Armagh area, including six members of the extended Hughes family, among them Hughes’s wife, Annette.
Annette Hughes is a member of the local District Policing Partnership, which amongst its duties holds the police to account. She has since come under pressure from the DUP to resign.
However, Sinn F