Worker secures redundancy from shuttered cash-for-visas fund

A worker has secured an order for a redundancy payment worth about €3,000 against a company promoting Irish residency visas to international property investors after it “unexpectedly” shut down last year.

Brian McCarthy’s claim for statutory redundancy under the Redundancy Payments Act against Huawen Foundation Ltd has been upheld by the Workplace Relations Commission.

Mr McCarthy is the second worker to secure a payment following an award of more than €12,000 to a colleague who won a claim after being left without pay for four months.

The company, which previously offered investment opportunities under the Department of Justice’s Irish Immigrant Investor Programme, did not appear in order to defend Mr McCarthy’s claim at an adjudication hearing in April.

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Mr McCarthy said Huawen Foundation Ltd “closed down unexpectedly without making provision for redundancy”. It had provided “an information service for overseas students” but, during Covid, there had been “a reduction in the need for the services”.

He said he had been employed with the company from March 2019 to April 2021, just above the 104-week threshold for statutory redundancy.

“I accept that the complainant’s job was made redundant, and I accept that the complainant was entitled to be paid redundancy pursuant to the Redundancy Payments Acts,” wrote adjudicating officer Penelope McGrath in her decision.

On the basis of his duration of service and €615 gross weekly salary exceeding the €600 cap on statutory redundancy, Mr McGrath was due a payment of approximately €3,000.

Huawen Foundation is wholly owned by British businessman Kai Dai, the chief executive of property investor Kylin Prime Group, which has subsidiaries in Ireland, Switzerland and Cyprus.

Until early February this year, Huawen Foundation had an address on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, when it changed its registered office to the Nuremore Hotel & Country Club, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.

In March, Huawen Foundation was ordered to pay €12,400 to its former director of international investment, Daoquan Zhang, after finding the company in breach of the Payment of Wages Act.

Mr Zhang had told the tribunal his former employer failed to pay him for four months up to February 2021 but had submitted incorrect payslips to the Revenue Commissioners, leaving him liable for income tax on money he never received.