Gayle Killilea meets deadline to provide assets securing €19.5m judgment

Gayle Killilea, ex-wife of bankrupt property mogul Sean Dunne, met a Friday deadline to provide assets securing the €19.5 million judgment against the couple in their 2019 US civil trial, according to a lawyer for the bankruptcy trustee.

Bankruptcy trustee attorney Thomas Curran called the securing of the assets “a big deal” in the long-running case.

”The trustee is gratified that the security is locked down,” Mr. Curran said.

“There’s no question as to how the judgment is going to get paid [assuming all appeals fail ].”

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The secured assets turned over to the trustee include $12.5 million (€11.4 million) from the sale of Walford, Ireland’s most expensive home; the mortgage on a US home worth an estimated $4.5 million that the court ordered Killilea to sell and turn over the proceeds to the trustee; $5.56 million in cash; and $360,000 from another bankruptcy case.

Mr Dunne has appealed the verdict in the case to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York and Ms. Kilillea may chose to do the same. If the appeals fail, the trustee can then liquidate the assets he now holds and pay creditors, Curran said.

Neither Ms Killilea nor her lawyer, Patrick Fahey, were available for comment.

Mr Dunne moved to the US when the Celtic Tiger era came to an end and later declared bankruptcy there.

The American bankruptcy trustee eventually sued Mr. Dunne and his then-spouse, Ms. Killilea, alleging that he had fraudulently transferred millions of euros in assets to her in a scheme to shield them from creditors.

In June, 2019, a jury sitting in Connecticut agreed and awarded the trustee €18.1 million, a sum that has grown with interest to €19.5 million .

After the trial, it emerged that the couple had divorced.

Last month, US District Judge Jeffrey Meyer rejected Ms. Killilea’s request for a new trial and ordered her to provide certain assets as security while she mulls an appeal. If she had failed to do so, the trustee could have taken immediate steps to seize the assets.

Ms Killilea was originally supposed to hand over the assets by Februury 23rd, but her lawyer sought a month-long delay. Judge Meyer gave her until Friday, 4th March.