Yesterday a judge in Belfast’s High Court handed down two judgments in the latest installment of what is becoming the Quinn Family Saga, being played out on both sides of the Border, with ongoing concurrent actions in both Belfast and Dublin. The first of the latest Belfast judgments concerns itself with what IBRC – formerly Anglo – says was an attempt to put assets, which were properly to be used to offset Sean Quinn’s massive debts to the bank, beyond the reach of the bank. At the heart of it is a shopping centre in Kiev,Ukraine which IBRC is after to offset against Sean Quinn’s outstanding loans. The shopping centre in Ukraine owes USD 45m to a Quinn company in Ireland, a company which is now controlled by IBRC after the appointment of receivers last year. But before IBRC installed its receivers, it seems that the Quinn company sold the USD 45m debt to a Northern Ireland shelf company with a GBP 100 share capital controlled by Sean’s nephew, Peter Quinn. And this company in turn sold the debt to a shelf company from the British Virgin Islands and this last company then tried to enforce the debt and seize the Kiev shopping centre. Are you still with me?! And by the way, there is contention over when the loan was transferred and there are suggestions it was backdated.
In any event, the judge Mr Justice McCloskey was having none of it and yesterday’s judgment declared the transfers null and void. Whilst not getting personal with the Quinns at this stage, this is what the judge had to say in conclusion.
“When considered in conjunction with the other related impugned transactions, it is patent that the participants were indulging in an orchestrated, elaborate and illicit charade. Based on the available evidence, this exercise had no purpose other than to put this asset beyond the reach of legitimate creditors and/or to prejudice their interests. The Plaintiffs are plainly victims of the impugned transactions. Accordingly, the Plaintiffs qualify for the grant of appropriate relief by the court.”
The first judgement is available here as a PDF document.
NAMA Wine Lake 
But will IBRC actually be able to get any of these assets back? I remain deeply skeptical of the ability of the courts in Ireland–north or south–to actually deal with “border businessmen” such as Sean Quinn. My opinion is that he and his brood will yet fly the coop.
OT:
This still relevant?
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/7730264/Blues-bid-for-Battersea
Haven’t been keeping up-to-date.
Ronan and Barret are desperately trying to sex up the Battersea deal in an effort to force Nama to hand over more money. You know things are serious when the PR teams resort to using football clubs.
Here you go Sean asset planning US style………and its Friday.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/polo-club-founder-john-goodman-adopts-adult-girlfriend/story?id=15490688#.T6P5o-sQuhQ
If they are depending on the Ukrainian courts they have no chance of getting anything back. I get the impression with Quinn that he felt that if the bailiffs was coming, that he would rather burn the house down than let them have it and essentially that is what he has done.
Fair f…ks to Sean if you you did. Them shower from anglo deserve nothing better. They never thought he would be able to fight them, no fight them he has, sooner or later the truth will appear.
@frank, eh, Sean is screwing the taxpayer not Anglo.Anglo, now known as IBRC, was nationalised therefore the money owed by the Quinns to Anglo is now owed to us. If they don’t pay up then we’re on the hook for those debts. Maybe remove the first word from you’re opening sentence and I’d agree with you.
Once they can knock a good salary and career out of it they are happy. The last thing on their minds is the tax payer. “Tax payer” is a the cover up mantra used in IBRC and NAMA. Anyone that believes all this is about the tax payer have never liquidated a company.