Billionaire businessman John Magnier and his son John Paul Magnier delivered two brown envelopes with €50,000 in cash to a farmer to expedite the sale of a farm of land, according to court documents.
The envelopes, with €25,000 in each of them, was given for the personal use of Richard Thomson-Moore and his sister Alexandra, who are the beneficial owners of the Barne Estate in Co Tipperary. Two days later the envelopes were sent back to Mr Magnier via local auctioneer John Stokes, it is claimed.
The alleged event happened on September 7th this year and was a “purported effort to suggest the existence of an enforceable agreement”, according to the defence and counterclaim set out by Mr Thomson-Moore, the Barne Estate Ltd and the Jersey-based trusts that own the estate, IQ EQ One and IQ EQ Two.
Mr Magnier, his son and daughter Katherine Wachman are suing them in the Commercial Court over the alleged sale of the 751-acre farm on August 22nd this year.
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Mr Magnier claims that he shook hands with Mr Thomson-Moore on that date to purchase the farm for €15 million. Mr Magnier states he paid a €250,000 deposit for the land, lodged the full amount with his solicitors and paid for a tillage licence to plough the land on the basis that he had a “binding agreement” to purchase it.
Mr Thomson-Moore’s defence claims that as late as October 6th this year, Mr Magnier upped his offer to €16 million with an extra €500,000 fund for the benefit of Mr Thomson-Moore’s three-year-old son Teddy, who has cerebral palsy.
Mr Thomson-Moore and his wife are selling the estate that has been in his family since the 17th century to move to Australia and to fund his future care.
They claim that Mr Magnier’s claim is “slandering” their chances of concluding the sale of the property to New York-based businessman Maurice Regan who has paid €22.5 million for it.
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