'Stupid' case taken to deflect attention from enormous disaster

ANALYSIS:SPEAKING TO reporters outside the High Court in Belfast yesterday, former billionaire Seán Quinn accused the State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) of trying to stir up hatred against him.

He said the former Anglo Irish Bank was spending tens of thousands of pounds taking a “stupid” case against him as part of its campaign to deflect attention away from the enormous disaster that was Anglo Irish Bank. The Quinn family continues to refer to IBRC as “Anglo Irish Bank”.

By using the media to turn the focus onto him and former Anglo chief executive David Drumm, the bank was switching attention away from the billions of euro it had cost the Irish State, he claimed.

Quinn himself, of course, has cost the State a fair few bob. His reckless investment in Anglo shares using contracts for difference destabilised the bank (which undoubtedly would have collapsed anyway), and fatally undermined the group of companies he and his family had built up over the previous three decades.

Yesterday, Quinn said he took responsibility for his actions, saying he had got caught up in the Anglo story, and made foolish investments.

His family is now disputing the bulk of the €2.88 billion it owes the IBRC on grounds that the loans were illegally issued by the bank because it knew the money was being used to shore up the Anglo share price.

The family is also claiming the bank knew more about its brittle position at the time than the Quinns themselves did. The argument is likely to begin hearing in February of next year in the Dublin courts, and will cost a quarry-load of money in legal fees.

Another curious aspect of the Quinn/Anglo story is the way Quinn says he decided to embark on investing in Anglo in about 2005, but the investments were made by way of a Madeiran company owned by his children.

Just as Quinn’s personal and company affairs appear inextricably linked, there seems to be no sharp boundary between his affairs and those of his children.

Quinn’s view is that there is no point in spending more of the State’s money chasing him, as he is a bankrupt and has nothing.

His statement of affairs filed last month supports this claim. He has a little over €10,000 in three bank accounts, some afforested land in Cavan and Fermanagh worth £35,000, and a 2004 Mercedes S600 worth £4,000. He has an Irish Life pension worth €159,951 and a Quinn Life pension worth €39,723. He turned 65 at around the time he filed for bankruptcy.

In that same statement he said he had no business, was unemployed, had no income, and had monthly outgoings of £2,380. This consisted of £850 on food and housekeeping, £1,200 on gas and heating, and £150 on telephone charges, with other outgoings added.

In a section of the document where he was asked whether he leased or rented any property, he replied “not applicable”. However in his case at the Belfast High Court, Quinn has said his centre of main interests is in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, and that he has been leasing an office there since May.

IBRC is arguing that Quinn’s centre of main interests is at his home in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, and not Derrylin, and that he, therefore, should not be a bankrupt in Northern Ireland.

To support his claim regarding Derrylin, Quinn has produced a lease document. IBRC are urging the Belfast court to believe it is a forgery.

Having built his business empire on the small Fermanagh farm where he was born, Quinn and his wife Patricia – who comes from Ballyconnell – began transferring ownership of the Quinn Group to their children in the 1990s as part of their tax planning and inheritance arrangements. In the middle of the last decade the children paid for the construction of a new house on the site in Ballyconnell where their parents live. In October last the couple transferred ownership of the site to their children in return for £100,000.

Quinn used his share of the money to pay legal fees.

When he applied for bankruptcy in November, Quinn believed he had one creditor, IBRC.

He may soon have two. According to his affidavit, his and his family’s affairs were always run out of the Quinn Group headquarters on the old family farm in Derrylin. Family utility bills were paid in Derrylin with Quinn Group money.

The UK Revenue and Customs have written to him recently, “indicating they wish to check the content of my personal annual tax return for the last number of years, relating to benefits in kind”.

The UK Revenue wrote to him in Ballyconnell.