Quinn has €300 in cash, €11,171 in bank, statement of affairs shows

FORMER BILLIONAIRE Seán Quinn has cash of €300, €11,171 in the bank and a pension bond with Irish Life worth €159,951, according to a draft statement of affairs for the Irish Bankruptcy Assignee, Chris Lehane.

He owns a 2004 Mercedes Benz S600 worth €6,000, has an interest in forestry land in Co Fermanagh with a minimal value, and similar land in Co Fermanagh in which his interest is worth €25,000.

Mr Quinn was at one stage considered Ireland’s richest businessman, with his Quinn Group given a value of up to €5 billion. He transferred the shares in the group to his five adult children 10 years ago.

The group has since been seized by Anglo Irish Bank, which is now part of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The State-owned bank claims the Quinn family owes it €2.8 billion, a claim that is disputed by the family.

In his statement of affairs, Mr Quinn said he had disputed debts with Anglo Irish Bank arising from a guarantee. He also said that his personal papers, previous employment details, historical tax records and legal papers were in his office in the Quinn Group.

He says PricewaterhouseCoopers and AL Goodbody also have, respectively, tax records and legal papers belonging to him.

Mr Quinn does not own his family home in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.

In a statement of affairs given to the courts in Belfast last year, Mr Quinn said his monthly outgoings were £1,200 in utility bills, £100 for clothes, £80 for travel, and £150 for phone charges. Cleaning bills and food came to £850 a month.

No such details are contained in the statement drafted for the Irish bankruptcy process.

The draft statement of affairs was included with an affidavit filed to the High Court in July by Mr Quinn in response to coercive orders made by Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne after she found Mr Quinn, his son Seán jnr and his nephew Peter Darragh Quinn guilty of contempt of court.

Mr Quinn said he intended to finalise the statement of affairs once Mr Lehane had had an opportunity to consider “cross-jurisdictional Revenue issues”.

The draft statement of affairs was “a true reflection of my assets and liabilities”, he said.

One of the orders made by Ms Justice Dunne concerned any dealings Mr Quinn might have had with the Senat group, a legal and financial services business with offices in Liechtenstein, Dubai, Austria and Switzerland.

Peter Quinn has told the courts of speaking with Senat partner Michael Waechter about establishing a trust for Mr Quinn’s children, as well as matters to do with offshore companies that have been involved in transactions that form part of the contempt issue.

In his affidavit, Mr Quinn said he never had any dealings with any Senat entity. However, he did say that, last year, he sanctioned a strategy designed to frustrate the efforts of the bank to enforce its security against the family. The family has since said it has lost control of the assets now and cannot implement the coercive orders issued by Ms Justice Dunne.

Senat issued a statement to The Irish Times saying it was not the case, as had been suggested in the courts, that it “masterminded” the Quinn family’s efforts to place its international property portfolio beyond the bank’s reach.

However, it said it had acted to assist the family in co-ordinating legal actions in Ireland, India and Cyprus.

Asked whether Senat had acted for any trust established for the Quinn family, Mr Waechter said his firm did not usually answer such questions, but, as it understood that a receiver had been appointed to the parties involved, he could confirm that Senat had not opened a trust for the Quinns.

The contempt issue is back before Ms Justice Dunne on October 19th next.

While Seán Quinn jnr has been jailed and a warrant issued for the arrest of Peter Quinn, the judge has not as yet imposed any punishment on Seán Quinn snr.