FIRST Minister Peter Robinson has insisted he is aware of no evidence that any politician in Northern Ireland was attempting to profit from a controversial billion pound-plus property deal.
The DUP leader also said no-one in his family or party hoped to benefit by "one penny" from the sale of Nama's NI property loan portfolio.
Mr Robinson said the only thing Stormont ministers involved in promoting the deal were hoping to get out of their efforts was to see an eventual upturn in the construction trade.
The DUP leader said he only became aware of the plan for multi-million pound 'fixer' fees in relation to the sale when the issue became public knowledge.
Mr Robinson told the BBC there had been "no vulgar talk about fees" at any meetings involving ministers.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is leading an investigation into the £1.3 billion sale of Northern Ireland assets owned by the Dublin government's "bad bank" Nama to a US investment firm last year.
The probe was triggered following explosive allegations levelled in the Dáil last week by independent TD Mick Wallace.
Using parliamentary privilege, he alleged that £7 million had been moved from a solicitor to an Isle of Man account linked to the deal was "reportedly earmarked for a Northern Ireland politician or political party".
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Despite repeated calls this week for an interview, Mr Robinson instead spoke to broadcasters and journalists from other news organisations yesterday.
During the interview he branded allegations circulating on the internet claiming he and his son Gareth were set to profit from the deal as the work of "trolls and village idiots".
It is understood he also claimed during a BBC interview that there had been a "witch hunt" against his son by "one rag sheet of a paper", believed to have been a reference to The Irish News.
A spokesman for BBC NI confirmed the line - which had been tweeted by a BBC journalist but later deleted - was accurate but had been edited from the broadcast interview.
The DUP leader added: "There is nothing that I have seen that substantiates those allegations in relation to the DUP or any other party. There were about five ministers who would have been involved to some extent in these matters. The interests of every one of them was to get the best deal for Northern Ireland.
"They would have been pilloried if they hadn't been looking after the Northern Ireland interest in these matters, so I don't think there is anything that anybody has anything to worry about.
"That's why I welcome the fact that the NCA is looking at the matter and we can get a clear response at the end of that investigation."
Nama sold its 850 property loans in Northern Ireland to US private equity firm Cerberus last year.
Mr Wallace's allegations in the Dáil last Thursday related to the role law firm Tughans, played in the deal.
The Wexford TD claimed the money in the offshore account was discovered during a routine internal audit by the Belfast solicitors following their work for Cerberus.
Senior partners at Tughans said the money was diverted without their knowledge and has since been retrieved.
Nama and all private firms and legal practices involved in the Northern Ireland assets sale have denied wrongdoing.
In regard to the internet allegations against him and his son, Mr Robinson claimed suing was not an option, as those behind them had no material wealth.
"You get the trolls and the village idiots of social media who come out and make all sorts of allegations knowing they haven't got a brass farthing in order to be sued," he said.
"There are people with very little credibility, actually with no credibility at all, so you don't concern yourself that people are going to actually form their opinion around what they are saying.
"But it is obviously annoying that there is this gap in the way social media works and I think it has to be plugged in the long term that people can say anything and because they don't have any substance they can get away with it effectively."
Mr Robinson's son issued a brief statement earlier this week denied any wrongdoing.
Referring to his son he said: "At the end of the day he has made his position clear and he's a big boy, he can look after himself and will do."
Attention has been focused on a meeting Peter Robinson held with Cerberus officials days before the deal last year. As revealed in The Irish News, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said he was not aware of the encounter.
Mr Robinson yesterday said any suggestion of it being a "secret" meeting was "sensationalist".
"When you have a private meeting on a confidential basis with somebody because of the commerciality of the issue it doesn't become a secret meeting," he said.
A parliamentary committee in Dublin on Thursday heard Nama chiefs claim that some £5 million was to be paid to a former Nama adviser by another US investment fund if it won the bidding war for the portfolio.
In an explosive revelation, Nama representatives said Frank Cushnahan was named by US financiers Pimco over a three-way split of a £15m pot for getting the billion pound deal over the line last year.
The others in line for payment were Brown Rudnick, the American legal firm acting for the investors, and Tughans.
Mr Robinson said there was no talk of fees during any of the meetings he was involved with regarding the sale.
"That's private business, nothing to do with me," he said. "Nothing as vulgar as what people were getting in fees was ever discussed at any meeting I was present at.
"I have to say probably most people will be saying to themselves they have chosen the wrong career path if those are the kind of fees you can get.
"But I suspect this isn't the kind of deal that will be coming along very regularly for any practice."
