that Sinn Féin be fined for authorising the heist and remarked in the report that "the leadership and rank and file of Sinn Féin need to make the choice between continued association with and support for PIRA criminality and the path of an exclusively democratic political party". The Provisional IRA issued a statement on 18 January 2005, saying "the IRA has been accused of involvement in the recent Northern Bank robbery. We were not involved". Despite this denial from the Provisional IRA, it was widely believed in Northern Ireland, especially in unionist circles, that it was responsible. Commentators in the UK mainstream media speculated that the heist had been intended either to secure a pension fund for IRA active service members or to support Sinn Féin's electoral campaign. In February 2005, the Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell accused Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin MP for Belfast West), Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris (Sinn Féin TD for Kerry North), of not only being IRA members but leading it from their positions on the IRA Army Council. Investigations and arrests On 10 February 2005 (the day that the Independent Monitoring Commission report was released), houses near Beragh, County Tyrone, belonging to two brothers were searched in connection with the robbery but nothing was found. In the Republic of Ireland, the Garda Síochána announced on 17 February that it had arrested seven people and recovered over £2 million, including £60,000 in Northern Bank notes, during raids in the Cork and Dublin areas, as part of investigations into money laundering. Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy did not officially confirm that the raids were related to the Northern Bank robbery, but said the IRA was behind the laundering. The arrests were made under the Offences against the State Act. Those arrested included several men from Derry and a former Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish parliament. Three men were arrested at Heuston Station in Dublin and Don Bullman was alleged to have been carrying €94,000 (£62,000) in a box of Daz washing powder. Bullman received a four-year jail sentence in 2007 for membership of the IRA. The sentencing judge said his conviction gave no indication as to his guilt regarding other matters such as the Northern robbery. At a house owned by financial adviser Ted Cunningham in Farran, County Cork, £2.3 million was impounded after being discovered hidden in compost and Cunningham and his wife were