MARTIN McGuinness told Stormont's Nama inquiry yesterday there were "very serious questions" about what capacity DUP leader Peter Robinson was acting in over the portfolio deal.
The Deputy First Minister said he was "kept in the dark" about meetings and correspondence DUP ministers had with Nama and bidders for its northern loan book.
He also said he was "gobsmacked" after The Irish News revealed Mr Robinson's meeting with Cerberus chairman and former US Vice President Dan Quayle ahead of the firm's purchase.
Mr McGuinness dismissed as "totally and absolutely misleading" suggestions that he was fully briefed.
"For anybody to suggest that I was fully briefed and engaged in this is totally and absolutely wrong," he said.
The Sinn Féin MLA said not being told of meetings and contact ahead of the Nama deal "raises very serious questions in relation to what capacity the First Minister was acting".
The Irish News previously revealed that Mr Robinson and former DUP finance minister Simon Hamilton, along with solicitor Ian Coulter, met with Dan Quayle at Stormont Castle in March last year – just days before its Nama deal was finalised.
Mr McGuinness yesterday said: "I was gobsmacked when I learned, in the aftermath of the contributions that came in the Dáil and the information that followed from all of that from different sources, that the former Vice President of the United States was in Stormont meeting with the finance minister and First Minister and others without my knowledge."
He added: "I just find it incredible that the First Minister didn't tell me that a former Vice President was in Stormont Castle – I can't get my head around that."
Nama and all private firms involved in the Northern Ireland assets sale have denied wrongdoing.
Mr Robinson – who has temporarily stood aside as First Minister amid a political row over the murder of ex-IRA man Kevin McGuigan – has insisted that neither he nor anyone in his family or the DUP hoped to benefit "one penny" from the huge property deal.
The committee heard of Nama minutes of a phone call between Mr Hamilton and Nama's Frank Daly, where Mr Hamilton indicated both the first and deputy first ministers where fully engaged with a failed bid by US firm Pimco to purchase the portfolio.
Mr McGuinness dismissed the claim, and said he was unaware of meetings and correspondence in the run-up to the Nama deal involving Mr Robinson, and former DUP finance ministers Sammy Wilson and Simon Hamilton.
"I had no knowledge of these meetings. If I wasn't being told that these meetings were taking place I was certainly being kept in the dark," he said.
"It does raise very serious questions about the approach to the running of the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister."
The Stormont committee also discussed a 'memorandum of understanding' with Pimco emailed by the First Minister's office to Nama, which Nama later dismissed as a "debtors' charter".
The Deputy First Minister said he had never seen the document and there was no consent from his office to send the email.
There were some tetchy exchanges as Mr McGuinness was questioned by Jim Wells.
The DUP MLA told the committee that Mr McGuinness's special adviser Dara O'Hagan was sent an email in 2013 that included the 'memorandum of understanding'.
"That document is so explosive that no-one could claim that they didn't know what was going on," he said.
He also claimed Mr McGuinness was invited to a meeting with Cerberus in April last year, but was unable to attend due to joining a state banquet at Windsor Castle with Queen Elizabeth.
Mr Wells also told the committee that the memorandum was discussed in a conference call in January last year involving Mr McGuinness, Mr Robinson and the Republic's finance minister Michael Noonan.
"It's quite clear what's going on here. You are frantically trying to row back from decisions that you were fully aware of," he said.
Mr McGuinness accepted that the issue of the memorandum may have been mentioned by Mr Noonan, but insisted that he had never seen or approved it.
In one sharp exchange with Mr Wells, the Deputy First Minister added: "The individuals whose names are at the heart of this controversy are not friends of mine.
"The people of which I speak are certainly much closer to your party than they are to mine."
