Quinn denies knowing about signed document used in $45.2m Kiev claim

BUSINESSMAN SEÁN Quinn has said he knows nothing about a document that has surfaced in Ukraine bearing his name and which has assisted unknown parties in having a $45.2 million claim recognised by the Kiev courts.

The document purporting to be signed by Mr Quinn and others as the members of a supervisory board of Univermag, the company that owns a prominent Kiev shopping centre, is dated December 19th. It says the board has reappointed Larysa Yanez Puga as a director of Univermag.

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, is trying to seize the centre, on which it has charges associated with loans issued to the Quinn family. It controls the majority shareholding in Univermag by way of a Swedish company.

In early November, Ms Yanez Puga, who had worked for the Quinn family, was replaced as director by Rostislav Levinzon.

However, Mr Levinzon has not been able to take control of Univermag or to gain access to its offices, nor has he been able to gain control over the rent from the centre, which is in the region of $10 million per annum.

It took until early December for Mr Levinzon to get his appointment officially registered by the relevant Ukrainian authority.

The document purportedly signed by members of the Univermag supervisory board was discussed in a court in Kiev last Friday in a hearing where IBRC unsuccessfully disputed certain injunctions.

Shortly before Christmas, a British Virgin Islands company, Lyndhurst Development Trading, told the Kiev courts that it was owed $45.2 million by Univermag.

Attempts by Mr Levinzon’s lawyer to address the court were not acceded to, although Ms Yanez Puga’s representative was.

The court recognised the Lyndhurst debt and IBRC believes Univermag may now file for bankruptcy. Such a development might prove fatal to the IBRC’s efforts to seize the property.

It has now emerged that Ms Yanez Puga was registered as having replaced Mr Levinzon as director of Univermag in the days before the December trial hearing.

An examination of the registration files led to the document, allegedly signed by Mr Quinn and other former members of the Univermag board, being discovered by Ukrainian lawyers acting for IBRC, who raised the matter in court on Friday.

Asked about the document, a spokesman for Mr Quinn told The Irish Timesthat Mr Quinn "has not had sight of the document referred to, nor is he aware of what happened in Kiev's court [on Friday]. Seán Quinn did not sign any document relating to Univermag on December 19th, 2011."

It is understood some Irish associates of Mr Quinn, who were formerly members of the Univermag board, have told IBRC’s lawyers in Kiev that they have had no dealings with Univermag since long before November 2011.

A judge in Northern Ireland has granted a temporary freezing order to IBRC against Lyndhurst, instructing it not to alter an agreement it has with Univermag or trade in the agreement in any way or discharging any money remitted to it as a result of the agreement.

A similar order has been granted in the British Virgin Islands as the bank seeks to identify who is the beneficial owner of Lyndhurst.

The courts in Dublin are to be asked by IBRC today to have Mr Quinn declared a bankrupt. He was declared a bankrupt in Northern Ireland late last year but that ruling was later annulled after it was challenged by IBRC.