Larry Goodman’s business empire to be explored in court

The ownership and control of the business empire of Larry Goodman, including the role played by a foundation in Liechtenstein, are to be examined in court following a High Court ruling.

Details of the secretive corporate structure established by one of Ireland’s richest businessmen form part of a row between shareholders fighting for control of the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin.

In a ruling by Mr Justice Robert Haughton, it was noted that the decision to introduce the topic flowed from reports published in The Irish Times last year detailing the Goodman group structure.

Those reports showed how the Goodman business empire, which includes one of the Europe’s largest beef processing groups, ABP, as well as a wide range of property and other investments, involves holding and financing companies in Ireland, Britain, Jersey, Luxembourg, Malta, and the Netherlands, as well as a foundation in Liechtenstein, the Rabena Foundation. In the wake of the reports, the Revenue Commissioners initiated a review of the international structures.

Tax compliant

Mr Goodman, in a letter to this newspaper, said his group was headquartered in Ireland, tax compliant everywhere it operated, and paid an effective corporation tax rate in excess of the 12.5 per cent Irish rate.

Yesterday’s ruling came in a case between one of the founders of the clinic, surgeon Joseph Sheehan, and a number of defendants including Breccia, a company in the Goodman group.

Mr Justice Haughton granted an application from Mr Sheehan that he could amend his case to include the claim that the shareholders should have been told there had been a change in the ownership and control of Breccia in the period after the parties signed a shareholders’ agreement in 2006.

The Liechtenstein foundation and the extent of its control is key to the new claim.

The surgeon based his application on an expert's report, the judge said, which had been drafted following the April 2015 reports in The Irish Times.

Barrister Rossa Fanning, for Breccia, said the “chain of control” claim was being introduced to suggest an appearance of impropriety.

However, the Goodman group was tax compliant in every respect and its structure was fully known to the Revenue Commissioners, he said.