Dunne pulled legal bid hours before Nama deposition

Bankrupt property developer Sean Dunne dropped an attempt to pull his US bankruptcy case less than 48 hours before he was due to face a full-day of questioning by lawyers for the National Asset Management Agency, his biggest creditor, at a private deposition.

In the latest twist in the developer’s long-running insolvency travails, Mr Dunne withdrew the motion to dismiss his bankruptcy petition, filed in August, on Tuesday evening.

The developer, who filed for bankruptcy in the US with debts of $942 million (€700 million) in 2013, was scheduled to appear at the law offices of LeClair Ryan in New Haven, Connecticut, at 9.30am on Thursday for another day of question at the hands of Nama’s lawyers.

In his court submission filed at the Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday evening, Mr Dunne’s lawyers submitted a one-line document which said he was withdrawing the motion to dismiss his case.

No reason was given in the document. The bankruptcy court clerk cancelled the December 3rd trial hearing that was due to have taken place to decide whether he should be allowed to withdraw the case.

Mr Dunne attended the black-tie $1,000-a-ticket annual dinner for the American Irish Historical Society in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, on Thursday night where he mixed with Minister for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan, New York billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and other prominent figures in the city’s Irish-American community.

He declined to tell The Irish Times why he had decided to withdraw his application to pull his Connecticut bankruptcy case.

When asked if he had a busy week with the latest court move, he said: “Every week’s a busy week.” He declined to comment on his legal move, saying that it was an issue for another time.

His decision to proceed with his attempts to be declared bankruptcy and to walk away debt-free with a fresh financial start mark the latest reversal from the Co Carlow developer.

Mr Dunne was one of a number of individuals who were to be deposed by Nama’s lawyers as the State loans agency, which has a debt judgment of €185 million against the developer, was trying to find the legal cause of the businessman’s attempt to pull the case.

In his surprise motion to dismiss, Mr Dunne blamed the cost of defending the legal challenge taken by Nama to block his discharge from bankruptcy and said his creditors were adequately protected in Ireland where he is also embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings.

Debtors in American bankruptcy rarely seek to dismiss cases unless they secure an asset or cash windfall that allows them to pay off their creditors in full.

Following this week’s decision, the bankruptcy case is likely to revert to attempts by Nama, Ulster Bank and Mr Dunne’s bankruptcy trustee, a court-appointed official, to secure financial information from him and his wife, Gayle Killilea Dunne, in discovery for the trial to decide whether he should be given a fresh financial start.