The liquidator of Money Markets International stockbrokers (MMI) believes some £1.9 million (€2.4 million) was misappropriated from the firm and that he can connect two directors to more than £1 million of that sum, the High Court was told yesterday.

Mr Justice Kelly granted the liquidator, Mr Tom Kavanagh, orders restraining those two directors - Mr Oisin Fanning, of Forenaughts House, Forenaughts, Naas, Co Kildare and Mr John Curran, of Kingsley Mews, Raglan Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin - from reducing their assets below a total of £1.4 million. The judge was told the liquidator believes he can connect Mr Fanning to £936,816 and Mr Curran to £106,642.

The judge also gave Mr Kavanagh leave to issue summonses against seven directors of the company - including Mr Fanning and Mr Curran - seeking damages for fraudulent conversion and breach of fiduciary duty.

Mr Bill Shipsey SC, representing the liquidator, said his client could show from the books and records of MMI that the sums stated - £936,816 and £106,642 - had gone to Mr Fanning and Mr Curran respectively. The other five directors against whom summonses are to be issued seeking damages are: Mr Paul Boucher of Sandford Road, Dublin; Mr Colm O'Reilly, Alexandra Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow; Mr Tim Murphy, Dublin Road, Clane, Co Kildare; Mr Cian Kealy, Castledawson, Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin and Mr Peter O'Byrne, Montpelier Parade, Monkstown, Co Dublin.

Mr Justice Kelly granted interim injunctions, to continue until next Tuesday, which restrain Mr Fanning from reducing or removing from the State assets below £936,816. He made the same order against Mr Curran in the sum of £106,842.

Mr Shipsey said he was seeking the injunctions on the basis that these had been MMI trust monies and he wanted to preserve the trust fund.

The liquidator was claiming that the two directors had misappropriated client funds for their own benefit and for the benefit of associated persons with them.

Counsel gave an example of a sum of £385,000 drawn on the client account of MMI. He said the cheques were made payable to MMI itself, lodged back into the MMI account and were then shown in books and records of MMI as being to the credit of certain named individuals, some of whom were connected with Mr Fanning and Mr Curran.

There was a "sort of balancing exercise" in all cases. There was an entity called Cater Allen, a Jersey trust company. The liquidator had not been able to identify the beneficiaries of that trust.

Mr Kavanagh had been in touch with parties controlling that trust in Jersey. The £385,000 was purported to be debited to Cater Allen as if they were monies paid out to Cater Allen, even though the credits shown were for the individuals themselves.

Mr Shipsey said that seemed to be the pattern in relation to all the transactions which resulted in this application.

The first transaction concerned the £385,000 and the second related to a total of £551,000 sterling (€848 million). The same thing occurred in that the cheques were drawn on the Nat West account of MMI made payable to MMI.

The books and records of MMI purported to show payment to Cater Allen in Jersey but the persons shown to get credit for that were, in certain cases, Mr Fanning and Mr Curran and others associated with them.

Mr Shipsey said the identity of the parties who purported to be paid had been disguised. He was concerned that Cater Allen was shown for an amount totalling £1.9 million, which showed it to be a large debtor. The Jersey agents were disavowing any knowledge and denying they had ever received these payments.

The Jersey agents' response to the liquidator was that they intended to sue MMI for the negligent operation of the discretionary account.

Mr Shipsey referred to monies being credited to a "S. Maharaj" and said there was also a reference to an "S. Fanning". The liquidator believed this was a reference to Mr Fanning's wife whose maiden name was Maharaj.

Mr Justice Kelly, on reading an affidavit by Mr Kavanagh, said there was a later reference to another relationship and he asked if Mr Fanning had a common law wife. Mr Shipsey said that Mr Fanning had a relationship but the liquidator understood that they were married and there were matrimonial proceedings.

Counsel said other amounts totalling about £500,000 went back to 1996.