RTE is this evening reporting that NAMA has appointed Grant Thornton’s Paul McCann as property receiver to several properties owned by NAMA Top 20 developer Sean Dunne. The properties named include Hume House in Ballsbrige “the most expensive plot of land in the State” and RTE News reported properties in Sandyford and Mt Herbert are also affected though this needs to be confirmed. The D4 Hotel is not affected as it was subject to loans from non-NAMA banks.
It was in late March 2011 whenIreland’s Sunday Times (not available online) published an article linking the appointment of receivers by NAMA with Sean’s companies, but that story was rejected by Sean’s spokesperson at the time.
There is an extensive entry on here tracking the progress of the Dunnes as they carve out a new life in north west United States. Sean is also presently “a main player” in a nasty little legal action involving a cleaner inDublin.
Remember there is a spreadsheet of all companies and individuals here against whom NAMA has taken enforcement action.
UPDATE: 23rd July, 2011. There’s considerable reporting today on NAMA’s appointment of a property receiver to some of Sean Dunne’s Irish properties (here and here and here and here and here). Here’s the digest
How much?
€350m reportedly owing by Sean Dunne’s DCD group to Irish Nationwide Building Society and Bank of Ireland, now transferred to NAMA
Personal guarantees?
Apparently extensive, for example €40m reported in latest DCD group accounts (UPDATE: 25th July, 2011. Richard Curran in the Sunday Business Post, without citing sources, claims that Sean has given personal guarantees totalling €150m)
What’s in
Hume House, Ballsbridge
Riverside complex, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay
67 Merrion Square, (DCD Headquarters)
an office block onHerbert Street
the Hollybrook apartments onBrighton Road, Foxrock, southDublin
development sites in North Wall Quay (adjacent to unfinished Anglo HQ), and at Sandymount (Dublin4) and Rathfarnham (Dublin14)
What’s out (or named as out, the list may not be exhaustive)
D4 Hotels in Ballsbridge
four blocks at the front of AIB Bankcentre, Ballsbridge
overseas assets
Sean’s reaction
Publicly calm, he’ll work with NAMA, the personal guarantees are a worry, he’s surprised at the NAMA move as he claims that relations with NAMA were good in terms of his plans, he’s not legally challenging the move “At the end of the day it’s only money”. Publicly calm.
NAMA Wine Lake 
As predicted last earlier this week, a high profile receivership to rattle the cages. At times Frank and the boys are transparent…
@Garfunkel, I think I missed that prediction, can you remind us all again?
There are quite a number of NAMA business plans at a delicate stage of discussion at present, and it will not be surprising if we see some more receiverships in July and August, though David Daly aside, there had been a bit of an hiatus in the last three months since the Grehan receivership.
NWL, look over the comments from the Paddy mc case. I think you’ll find it mentioned that Nama would foreclose within the week! It is political, while the commercial sense of it may be plausible, it has to be says frank and the boys have everyone in such a state that they can be foreclosed on a needs must basis. This is in it’s turn used to prove a point, keep the government happy or satisfy the tyranny of the majority we skirted over earlier in the week.
It was my sherry laden comment…as an aide memoire!
@Garfunkel
I recalled that prediction the minute I heard about the Dunne receivership.
Yes, it is now a predictable sequence.
Is there anything left in these companies to even put into receivership? I imagine these companies have been stripped down to the copper wiring in the walls to pay for Dunne’s new life in the US. Are these properties actually worth much at this stage, or will they simply add to NAMAs losses?
Seems his fleeing to the US hasn’t impeded Dunne’s ability to litigate and probably even give witness in Dublin courts. I’m reminded of the boom-time case of the Irish Solicitor who fled abroad yet was still able to give evidence over video link. How convenient.
Anyway, one quote caught my eye in the story:
Considering Mr. Dunne has put the whole country back on our bicycles, these words should not be taken lightly!
Also, I think you should add this classic image to the post.
@OMF, no companies have been put into receivership – property receivers have been appointed to certain property assets. I know you comment on here quite often so at this stage, I’m sure you know that NAMA valued loans individually and heavily discounted the values paid to the banks, on average 58%. Are the properties worth much? Given the locations, yes absolutely, Will they add to NAMA’s losses? Perhaps, depending on what NAMA paid. But certainly commercial property has dropped almost 20% since NAMA’s valuation date and NAMA paid a long term economic value as well.
David Drumm is sometimes reported as “fleeing” to the US, but I think many of the larger-scale developers simply decided that Ireland was not going to have great development potential for a few years and there’s also a major blame culture. So some have relocated for sure, but you’d hardly call it “fleeing”
Wait a minute. Are you saying that a company can have its loans taken into NAMA, run into difficulties repaying them, and then have those loans and only those loans put into receivership but the company can continue to trade?
So one of these companies could–in theory–decide not to pay back a troubled loan and use leftover funds to, say, buy cheap property at the reduced price auctions and hold onto them for a few years, losing only the NAMA loans? Surely the company itself must fold if it cannot pay back its loans?
Well, you could say as well that Bishop McGee et al decided that Ireland wasn’t going to have great faith potential over the next few years and decided to try holding Masses in the US, but I don’t think that would get to the heart of the issue.
@NWL
Maybe I’ve misunderstood but you seem to be endorsing “relocating” by developers who have left massive debts behind to be ultimately picked up by the largely blameless taxpayers. I call it “doing a bunk”. Would you similarly approve of young couples in negative equity who decide that Ireland is not a great place to live in and relocate abroad after posting their house keys back to the bank?
@Brian, not endorsing anything but Hume House is not going to be worth its purchase price for another decade or two. So Sean Dunne’s presence here is of limited value, despite his claim that his people are best placed to extract maximum value from the asset. “Doing a bunk” is running away from debts you lawfully owe when you still have some assets. I’d guess most large-scale developers have used limited liability companies to buy and develop assets, with limited personal guarantees. So unless you can prove some behaviour which lifts the limited liability, then banks have limited recourse to the developer personally. So these developers are not doing a bunk as far as I can tell. Sean Dunne is relatively young and has another couple of decades of industry in him so what is he going to do?
@NWL.
I am surprised that you say no companies have been put into receivership. My limited understanding of receivership would say that a receiver is appointed to a company by a bank or mortgage owner to recover a loan. I assume that this is what is happening.
Of course it need not mean that a receiverer has been appointed to the whole group of companies, assuming that it was a group!
As for the future of many of these entrepreneurs, I have little sympathy. I have far more sympathy for the hundred of thousands of building workers and other workers throughout the economy, who are now to use the @omf quote “back on their bicycle”.
I am conscious of the fact that apprenticeships were effectively done away with by the ‘modern’, now bankrupt developers, leaving the workers without even formal qualifications. Equally in order to get around employment law, workers were transmuted into C2 subbies, with no social welfare protection whatever.
No, with few exceptions, this is not a class of ‘entrepreneur’ that deserves any sympathy based on its record as employer, on its record of building excellence, on its record as responsible business people, on its record of remorse.
Dunne was not one of those exceptions.
@Joseph Ryan
The receivers are “fixed charge” property receivers. The are not receivers over the shares of a company, nor indeed are they receivers over any other company asset other than the property over which the bank (now NAMA) had a fixed charge.
The developers are not the only people emigrating. There is a whole swathe of our youth leaving. The developers did create employment. Hence the hole in the tax take now. The DoF became junkies on the tax from the construction industry. I don’t recall any developer looking for sympathy. Live by the sword, you can expect to die by it ….
@WSTT
The leagl entity, the company, borrowed the money, therefore the receiver is appointed to the company. Yes, if the only charge is a fixed charge on a specific property of the company, then the only power of the receiver is over that property. But the reality is that as the company borrowed the money the company still owes the money (or the rest of the money, after the building has been sold). Therefore the receiver is still entitled to receive in other assets until the loan is paid off. Unless of course, these loans were in the form of non-recourse mortgage lending as in the US. I doubt it.
On the question of developers not looking for sympathy. My comment was directed at the @nwl comment “Sean Dunne is relatively young and has another couple of decades of industry in him so what is he going to do?”
I would recommend for him the same make of bicycle he recommended for Ms Farrell. And this time he should do his own pedalling. And provide his own funds to buy the bicycle.
NAMA has been a busy little beaver this week. It also foreclosed on Paddy Kelly’s Sarasota development in Florida.
How much did it go for at the foreclosure auction? As I recall, the genuises at Anglo lent him $90mil to buy for $80mil.
@NWL
I’m not sure that 58% discount that NAMA bought loans at, can any longer be considered “heavily discounted”. BOSI are offering some of their borrowers their loans back at a 75% discount if they can produce the funds.
I reiterate, NAMA will lose 50% on its loan book.
@ MF
Right you are when you say
“I reiterate, NAMA will lose 50% on its loan book.”
Just for completeness, let’s rewrite that:
the TAXPAYER will lose the equivalent of 5o% of NAMA’s loan book….
millions upon millions I believe. In fact it is such a complex, twisted calculation that we will argue over exactly how many millions the TAXPAYER lost for years to come.
I mentioned on this blog some time back that aliens are coming to earth looking for the last person alive who still believes NAMA will turn a profit. Word has it they took off, gone looking water on Jupiter instead
Just wondering what do the green starts mean beside the developers names.
@John, the green star indicates press reporting that NAMA has “agreed” the developers business plan. Agreement was supposed to entail the signing of three documents
(1) Memorandum of Understanding
(2) Heads of Terms
(3) Final Agreement
And each of these three documents was to be signed by
(1) NAMA
(2) Developer
(3) Developer’s wife
The NAMA chairman, Frank Daly said last months that just one plan was “near to finality” against the above criteria
https://namawinelake.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/nama-chairman-interview-on-rte-radio-%e2%80%93-agreement-on-just-one-developer-business-plan-%e2%80%9cclose-to-finality%e2%80%9d/
The main reporting source for the green stars is here
https://namawinelake.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/%E2%80%9Ca-marked-increase-in-the-level-of-co-operation-between-nama-and-its-clients-in-light-of-its-recent-enforcement-actions%E2%80%9D/
@NWL
I have to say I am perplexed by your glib going away comment for Mr. Dunne: “Sean Dunne is relatively young and has another couple of decades of industry in him so what is he going to do?”
The developers are directly responsible for has happened to Ireland. This is not to say they did not have enablers, like the banks and the political class. However, they borrowed the money. That is the key point. If it had been their own money, no problem. But, now they have bequeathed Ireland at least one generation, if not two, to a life of destitution. They created the bubble with BORROWED money. You, apparently, thing it is a fine deal that they sail off to the new world and leave the suckers behind to pay off the unpayable. Cannot say I agree with you. I would rather see Mr. Dunne own up to his deeds. However, in today’s world that is next to asking the impossible.
@Jake, developers on the whole made bad business decisions in the sense they borrowed money for businesses (and property development is a business which provides a product demanded and needed by society) and the businesses failed.
“The developers are directly responsible for has happened to Ireland.” Well that is a view. It’s not the view of the Nyberg report which blames everyone with the one notable exception of developers.
https://namawinelake.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/the-nyberg-report-yet-another-examination-of-the-property-and-credit-bubble-in-the-2000s/
The view on here is utilitarian. NAMA should get as much back from the developers as it lawfully can. It would be helpful to this country if some of the developers did stay because property development will return as a end-product business – obviously with oversupply, absence of credit and a weak economy, it will take time but end-product development will return in time. And meantime there are raw-material deals to be done today. But aside from these, what do we want developers to do? Hume House is not going to recover its purchase price anytime soon at all. Sean’s people might have been best placed to extract maximum value in that they are familiar with the planning issues, intended market, plans and buyers/tenants – -NAMA disagreed so what do you want Sean to do in that situation?
And by the way, it was me that linked to the ongoing legal case in Dublin, and the comments quoted from the case are claims. I’m not familiar with the case but generally speaking, there are two sides to a story.
@Jack Watts
Ahh… Just a small factoid. The developers did not bequeath this life of destitution to the next generations of Irish taxpayers. The government did that in September 2010 when it guaranteed the banks.
@WSTT
“when it guaranteed the banks” (rightly or wrongly) to prevent a meltdown in the banking system arising from its exposure to a property bubble created by developers and their banking buddies. Just another “small factoid”.
Imho, the problem with the guarantee was that it was too broad in coverage (in terms of banks and scope). I remember thinking at the time that the Government should have called a bank holiday for a few days to allow dust to settle and calm thinking. This might have been very disruptive at the time but would have allowed a better solution to emerge.
….. Should read 2008, not 2010
@ Brian
The banks did melt down. We are like the pub with no beer; a country with no banks; described by an international bank here recently as “a basket case”.
The deposit base of our zombie banks should have been sold to a better capitalised competitor. There was no need whatsoever to guarantee the bondholders. They are commercial animals and are not entitled to a free lunch at the expense of the taxpayer. The guarantee achieved nothing except the indentured serfdom the of the Irish citizen for the next several generations. It’s no wonder so many are packing their bags and voting with their feet.
It’s the courageous that go, be they developers, carpenters, software designers…. they are the “wagon train” people, the adventurers. It’s a big world out there and there is life beyond this poxy little carbuncle on the backside of Europe.
The cowardly stay at home, pull the sheets over their heads, whinge and play the blame game.
End of rant.
@WSTT
Rant away – it is good to get diverse views out in the open and discussed.
Having sh** all over the place and created financial mayhem on a world scale, your brave “adventurers” jump ship and leave the “cowardly” behind holding the babies and consigning a (possible) generation to financial penury. And you think that we should pull the sheets over our heads and ignore all this.
My rant over.
@WSTT
Just wondering how many people you are proposing to embark on this new age ‘trail of tears’.
I’m not proposing anyone do anything. We all have choices and people are choosing for themselves. Nobody said it was easy. I’m just saying that the courageous and ambitious leave, For centuries, our best people have left. Whether the ship was holed for financial, starvation or political reasons – it was catastrophically holed in each and every generation. Not much has changed.
Not meaning to mix metaphors, but we only get one round on the golf course. There isn’t a practice round (unless you’re a Buddhist of course). Many would prefer to spend it on a course where there is at least a chance of some fairways and that it is not all played in the rough with no clubs. They are the ones with the balls. And I’m not talking about the developers (Was it Dunne that said he had “balls of steel”?). I’m talking about those who follow the example of their more courageous ancestors and choose to go.
@Brian
BTW, I’m not suggesting that those who stay at home should “pull the sheets over their heads and ignore all this”. I’m saying that they are pulling the sheets over their heads in depression and are only interested in whinging and laying blame. You can pass a lifetime like that and not even get out of bed.
It is very easy for those with fancy mansions and ring-fenced savings abroad to up sticks and leave their wreckages behind. Some may claim to have balls of steel but they also up to their brass necks in debt which may not be repaid (by them). Nothing courageous about them. In fact, it is cowardly.
What about all the people who, thanks to the bubble, have no savings (lost in the banks etc.), locked into negative equity, young family and poor job prospects ? I don’t think that these people wish to pass their lives “pulling the sheets over their heads in depression and are only interested in whinging and laying blame.”
Do you think people are complaining about nothing? This entire country was wrecked and bankrupted by a cadre of developers, banker, and politicians.
Laying blame?! There’s blame to be laid all right. The trouble is none has yet been laid on anyone at all. It is the people who wrecked Ireland who have pulled sheets over their heads, firstly outright refusing to believe that a recession was even occurring, then refusing to accept their part in causing it.
I can assure you, it is not the 500,000 people who are unemployed, or the hundreds of thousands more who have emigrated who are living in denial about what happened to this country, or who caused it. If you want to see real whinging and blame laying, look no further than the likes of Sean Dunne, Micheal Fingleton, David Drumm, et al.
Most developers have no savings, no income and are bust. NAMA has mandated any income that they have. Most had put everything on the table to try to save the business. Very few have ring-fenced savings or fancy mansions abroad. They too have young families to support and homes in negative equity.
They are emigrating because there is nothing here for them. The dogs in the street can buy their assets at knockdown prices, but they can’t. They have been debarred from that process – even discriminated against. For God’s sake, why would they stay?
They are lepers and live in a colony that vilifies and excludes them. What would you do in similar circumstances?
As I said, there is a big world beyond this poxy little island and its hostile mentality.
Wonder will Sean and the Lads show up at Galway this week
@WSTT
Yes, let’s do away with the blame game and whining. Just put the old head down and plod along. Maybe we can provide champagne send off parties for the hero developers at the airports. No nasty weeks on an overcrowded tramp steamers for them, just first class and in less than six hours home to the new Paradise. To compare today’s fleeing developers to the really courageous Irish diaspora of the 19th century does take a lot of “balls”.
I”m all for patriotism, but here’s a new flash:
the sun rises in the east and sets in the west in America
well maintained grass is green in America
water is wet in America
and just like Ireland, just like Zimbabwe, Sh*t stinks in America.
Get over yourselves.
Go see the world.
You will realize people are people and Irishness only exist in an Irishmans mind in Ireland,
WSTT the vast majority of what you say on this board is informative and useful, I especially agree that people should get out and see the world. While developers in general are responsible for really poor business practice, which in many cases does amount to greed, it is also true there is an awful lot of hostility toward them. Maybe they deserve it. But it is a bit silly in the end.
when camping under a tree in california with my kids this weekend, I am certain they will not ask:
is that a catholic, irish, fianna fail tree…from cork?
Nope, don’t think people care in general.
And as for really poor business practice, I am speaking from a standpoint where anything other total submission to nature is poor development.
Have a nice weekend
@ Brian Flanagan
There’s plenty of blame to go around but I would say of the developers, the banker, and the government, the developers are least culpable.
Bankers have a fiduciary responsibility to their depositors, bondholders, and shareholders. Either deliberately or out of sheer incompetence, they did not honor this responsibility.
The government has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayer. Again, they reneged on this responsibility.
Sure the developers made bad business decisions but did they have a fiduciary responsibility towards the depositors, bondholders, shareholders, or taxpayers?
Finally, WSTT is right about the Irish pulling sheets over their heads. I’ve been in Ireland many times since 2008 and each time I come back to the States even more perplexed as to why the average Irish person doesn’t seem to be angry about what happened and what is happening. It’s like they’re empty or that they seem soulless. Maybe, they don’t deserve a nation.
Hi Frank
The developers, bankers, government (to be specific the Cabinet, senior civil servants and regulator) needed each other so it it hard to single out any single party as having prime responsibility. Developers get lots of blame here (as the blog is mainly about Nama) but they were not acting alone. I suppose that we will only fully understand the extent of their adherence to their responsibilities until liquidators file their reports with the Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement (in a zillion years time).
Believe me.the Irish people are actually very angry but this has not surfaced yet other than to sweep FF out of office and to blame people for what has happened (which WSTT does not permit).
We have had a few official enquiries about matters but we still don’t know what really happened and who did what. You do enquiries and investigations much better in the States.
Remember that in the whole sorry episode to date, the only person to have appeared in front of the courts was a man who scratched the paint on the gates of Leinster House (albeit with six-wheel cement mixer) and subsequently tried to throw tennis balls at the Dail (using a high-reach platform). We have a poor track record on enquiries as (a) the only person who appeared in court over the whole meat business investigated by Hamilton Tribunal was a journalist (Susan O’Keefe) for publishing confidential stuff about the tribunal (b) the DIRT enquiry into rampant facilitation of tax evasion (with full knowledge of the establishment) by banks resulted in just a few slaps.
IMHO, it is the complete failure of the establishment to investigate and where appropriate to penalise those that caused the crisis that has sapped morale. The absence of “moral hazard” has got up people’s noses and begged the question as to “why bother” when those in a position to do something did nothing but draw big pensions, get golden handshakes, hide behind limited liability, brazen it out and/or walk away from their responsibilities. Here was my own take on what should have been done http://www.planware.org/briansblog/2010/09/economic-recklessness.html
We “deserve a nation” but not the business, establishment and political leaders that got us into such a mess.Once these have been fully purged, I’m confident that we can move on.
Let’s just call it pragmatism or logic and leave out the emotive cowardice or opportunism labels.
The developer’s choice is “Do I stay in Ireland, or do I emigrate?” If he stays in Ireland he is excluded from the opportunity to get back into business that he knows by the NAMA legislation. Anything that he might make in the future will be garnisheed by NAMA. A threat of bankruptcy hangs over his head for the next 12 years. He has no hope of providing for his family because there are no banks that will give him support. Despised, ruined and degraded, he is a non-person with no future.
His alternative choice is a new beginning overseas in a place where there are banks, a growth economy and opportunity. A place where he can provide for his family on a level playing field, without the anti-developer legislation, public opprobrium and political animosity.
In the main, change comes from crisis. It is not a coward’s decision to leave. It’s just the logical and practical choice.
And in the end, as I have said previously, we all have choices even if they are limited.
It also needs to be said that the flight of these people is not the best news for NAMA or the Irish taxpayer, who have yet to sell €20 billion plus of Irish property into a rapidly disappearing market.
@WSTT
You introduced the term cowardise etc.
Don’t know if you are in Ireland at the mo but it is a lovely sunny evening (not as good/hot as being enjoyed by our posters in the USA but it is *our* summer) and both of us should be enjoying it (while it lasts).
To be very honest, if I were in a (top) developer’s shoes and young(er) I’d go also on the grounds that there is nothing here for me except angst, sweat and tears.
However, I think you over egg the pudding with your negative comments about cowards, pulling sheets over heads, rejection of right to blame, poxy island etc.
My main concerns if I, as “mr big developer”, moved operations overseas (aside from ethical and moral issues) would be my credit rating (gee guys I still owe mega to banks/Nama in Ireland) and finding as poorly regulated banking system as the Irish one was; a supportive polical system (like a branch office of FF); and an incompetent and over-incentivised bank. If I found such a place, I’d certainly set up there.
Finally, you speak of a rapidy disappearing market – it was never there in the first instance.
Hi Brian,
I spoke of cowardice in terms of being afraid to go and choosing to stay merely to wallow in despair. I think that blame is a negative emotion and that it demeans us as a race of people. We are well known for it. We still blame the English for the actions of their ancestors 800 years ago.
I disagree with you about the market. It was there and still is. I have been selling into it for more than 30 years. The only variables in relation to it is production (it was oversupplied for the past ten years) and price. I am aware of developers who continue to rent very substantial new space even in the current market. On the residential end, Allsop has proved that there is a market. As I said, the variable is the price and the developers have no control over that.
I carry no brief for making excuses for anyone in this whole debacle, but many developers bought on the advice and valuations of agents who now work for NAMA. Many had little or no experience in the business and were wooed by banks and agents who had their own agendas. They could not run their own assessments or residual valuations and were badly advised. Everyone wanted to be a developer – solicitors, barristers, doctors, accountants, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers – everybody. And they all thought that it was easy. From 2005, I could no longer do the sums and justify the prices that others were paying. That doesn’t mean that I don’t bear scars. When the tide goes out like it has, it beaches all boats.
I should have listened more to the advice of Abraham Lincoln, who said something to the effect that “when you see everyone getting on the bandwagon, it’s time to get off”. But that’s a different issue.
Fair enough. I understand.
Can I add Warren Buffet’s advice “buy when people are afraid”. I suspect that 2013+ will be the best time to move.
I’m sure, you know about the dentist/shoe-shine-boy and the stockbroker. Basically, when the former is giving invetment advice, the latter should be advising his cleints to sell.
A more telling recent recievership is SuperQuinn, the dogs on the street know that Dunner (as dunphy allegedly called him once) is a busted flush.
Effectively the banks pulled the plug to pay property debt and stiffed the suppliers. The SFA have a point http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1022766.shtml
It’s a funny old world when unions, suppliers, new-purchasers agree with our banks and are happy to be stiffed by them. Kinda reminds you of the 80’s – the more things change etc etc.
The Sunday Times reported today that NAMA has hired Kroll to investigate Sean Dunne’s financial affairs. Kroll are the modern day equivalents of the Pinkertons for anyone who is an aficionado of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
However, as one who had occasion to hire them in the 1990s, I can vouch that their reputation greatly exceeds their ability to do anything except send large bills. Sherlock Holmes need not worry. I found that a couple of ex-Stasi operatives from East Germany were much more effective and far less expensive. I would be happy to send contact addresses if NAMA’s Intelligence (is that an oxymoron?) Section asks NWL nicely.
@Mark, Kroll Associates? These men and women http://www.kroll.com/solutions/investigations-disputes/
Whatever happened to NAMA’s inhouse hirelings?
https://namawinelake.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/nama-recruiting-investigators-to-check-out-developers%E2%80%99-finances/
I have a problem with the reporting in some of the papers – Riverside IV contains two buildings, one let to MOPs, one vacant. Now it was reported that Irish Life swapped Hume House for the building let to MOPs and indeed it was trying to find a buyer for part of the building over the last 12 months. So why are the newspaper reports saying that the Riverside IV complex has had a property receiver appointed?
Do we really believe the Nama/Kroll story, is that what they are blowing their budget on? After all, they hardly just sent Kroll after Dunne, they must have hired them to investigate all developers and the “hidden” (as in non existent) pots of gold.
And is the hiring of private investigators not Murdoch’s Sunday Times speciality? And if it’s true, why does the Sunday Times get this kind of information out of Nama sources and not other newspapers? Any insights Neil Callinan? Nama officers are meant to be gagged by the Official Secrets Act It is a criminal offence for Nama employees to leak such info. NAMA would want to watch out, as it appears they have the “cozy” kind of relationship with a Murdoch paper that is causing higher heads to roll in the UK.
@media/namasceptic, the Irish Independent today reports NAMA chairman, Frank Daly saying
“To be realistic, there will come a point where the effort will not be worth it. There is an outlay to this, there are legal fees, the energy, the effort, you have to make a reasonable assessment of what is there, what is left in the pot”
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/nama-in-plan-to-kickstart-property-market-2833270.html
In Sean’s case, there was reporting last weekend which suggested he might have €150m of personal guarantees. Paying Kroll a couple of million to investigate Sean’s personal finances doesn’t look incredible on the face of it