NAMA’s pursuit of the Dunnes, Sean and his wife Gayle in the US state of Connecticut is a daily source of drama. This week alone, according to the latest listing of filings in the case shown above, there were five filings on Monday and on Tuesday, there was a motion to have the NAMA case dismissed entirely. Meanwhile we wait to hear if the judge will accede to the recent NAMA request to have the case classified as “complex litigation” and we have the Dunnes trying to compel the folks making allegations about them to appear as witnesses, something NAMA is curiously resisting tooth-and-nail.
And we learned yesterday, amid the Budget 2013 histrionics, that one of the three NAMA employees whose presence is sought by the Dunnes, Kevin Nowlan has left the Agency apparently to return to work in the family business, WK Nowlan where Kevin’s father, Bill Nowlan (67) remains active.
The Dunnes had sought the NAMA CEO Brendan McDonagh, the NAMA Asset Recovery Manager John Coleman and the NAMA Asset Manager Kevin Nowlan to provide affidavits. According to last Sunday’s Sunday Independent, NAMA is strongly resisting the Dunnes’ attempts to have the three called as witnesses to the case in Connecticut where NAMA is alleging shenanigans against the Dunnes regarding transfers of assets between husband and wife, whilst the Dunnes robustly reject such accusations and in turn, accuse NAMA of undermining their reputations and business.
According to the Irish Times yesterday, Kevin Nowlan leaves NAMA after three years and will become the managing director of WK Nowlan replacing his father who, the paper claims “will in future be concentrating on developing the rapidly expanding investment section of that firm.” WK Nowlan is reported to employ 20 people. After the recent scandal with Enda Farrell and the subsequent concerns about former employees using information acquired at NAMA, it will be interesting to see if NAMA does any business with WK Nowlan in the near future, though it should be stressed that this is a question of perception and there is no suggestion that Kevin is or would act improperly.
It is understood that Kevin Nowlan was the asset manager who would have been responsible for dealing with Sean Dunne’s specific business plan submission, and presumably would be familiar with the disclosure of transfers by the Dunner. Of course, ultimately, the business plan was rejected, and NAMA took enforcement action and eventually secured a €185m judgment earlier this year. But it seems obvious that Kevin would be a key witness to exchanges with the Dunnes, particularly in the early stages of their engagement with NAMA.
And back in July 2011, Brendan McDonagh gave an extensive interview to the Daily Mail where he gave the strong impression that he is hands-on with the pursuit of certain developers “not paying their way”. So his shyness in resisting appearing as a witness in Connecticut is a little curious. And John Coleman is the NAMA Recovery Manager who has been hands-on with the Dunnes’ case.
A curious case indeed.
UPDATE: 23rd December 2012. The Sunday Independent today reports that Gayle has been successful in getting an order from the Connecticut court forcing Kevin Nowlan to be “deposed” – in practice this should mean he files a deposition by 31st . At this stage, it just looks like he will have to submit an affidavit, but he may actually be called for the hearing which has now been schedule for September 2014, according to Ronald Quinlan in the Sunday Independent.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Re update…now that he’s back minting it in private practice who’s paying,are x NAMA help who work for their daddy indemnified,while feeding and gourging at the NAMA trough,cant daddy who’s one biggest beneficiaries of NAMA’s largesse reach into his deep pocket notwithstanding his short arms….hopefully it’s not as suffocatinly boring as his oul fella’s musings in the papers.
Why would a US court accept an affidavit from a banana republic or as recently described….
…..Dr O’Donnell also said that she did not wish to live in a “bankocracy”
As we say over here I hope they rip him a new one…..deposition includes cross by opposing counsel….slightly different than an affidavit.
NAMA is in a whole heap of s**t here,trying to establish jurisdiction over a Swiss deal,are they going to insult a US court by non compliance or attempt to have said sworn deposition in a jurisdiction that is not governed by the same court..really!
Wheels up Kevin how does NAMA account for all the expenses here…ah yeah they add it to the loans that will never be collected on and are non performing with a deficiency judgement….some accountants they got.
“In the law of the United States, a deposition is the out-of-court oral testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes. It is commonly used in litigation in the United States and Canada and is almost always conducted outside of court by the lawyers themselves (that is, the judge is not present to supervise the examination). In other countries, testimony is usually preserved for future use by way of live testimony in the courtroom, or by way of written affidavit.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposition_(law)
I’ve been watching too many movies over Christmas. But reading the shenanigans of NAMA in Connecticut brings some relevance to them.
Gayle’s success reminds me of Hannibal Lecter’s remarks to Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs”. “Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly”…… but Gayle Killilea makes an unlikely Hannibal Lecter.
No, she’s more like Selina Kyle as Catwoman in Batman Returns: “Life’s a bitch, now so am I”…. When Selina Kyle delivered it, there can hardly have been a more loaded female threat.
She had just trashed all the trappings of her traditionally feminine home and violently constructed a menacing new identity. And yet, she still wears her skintight cat suit and her full face of makeup, which doesn’t scream “bitch” so much as “every teenager’s sexual fantasy”.
The identity issue has been problematic for NAMA and the media as Gayle strikes out against her enemies – this two sided social construct of angry woman as vengeful bitch and of angry woman as ex-social diarist. Her transformation from gossip columnist chasing the highflyers of the celtic tiger era around the hotspots of Europe to report on their antics into NAMA’s nemesis is almost complete. Cliched perceptions need to shift from where they are to look at her (angry or not, female or not) and see the person, not the stereotype.
NAMA have resorted to torture in her case. Torture is when the school bully smacks you in the face every day for a couple of years. It is when your opponent uses psychological pressure to bend you to its will. And torture is not only a cruel game, it is a dangerous one. Because if the victim suddenly finds herself holding a weapon – heaven knows where she may point it. And Gayle with this little victory has found a weapon – in the form of a US Court Deposition of a former NAMA executive.
I was going to award Paddy McKillen my 2012 John Wayne “True Grit” award. But Gayle shades it. Like Wayne in “The Shootist” she has forced her enemy to the saloon for the gunfight. Hopefully unlike Wayne she will survive the experience.