The jailing of both Seán Quinn senior and Seán Quinn junior for contempt of court arose from money linked to the Ukraina mall in Kiev.
In June and July of last year, the Quinn family was ordered by the High Court to halt its scheme to put the assets of its international property group beyond the reach of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The family had sought to do this because Anglo Irish Bank, now part of the IBRC, had claims against it.
Father and son, and their relative Peter Darragh Quinn, were found guilty of contempt earlier this year arising from their role in the payment of $500,000 to Ms Larysa Yanez Puga in August 2011. The payment came in part from the assets over which the bank says it has security. A warrant is outstanding for the arrest of Peter Darragh Quinn. Quinn snr is in jail and his son has served his sentence.
Quinn snr and Peter Darragh Quinn were also found in contempt arising from the assignment of a $45 million debt from Co Fermanagh company Desmesne Investments Ltd, to another Northern Irish firm, Innishmore Consultancy, without the payment of any consideration, purportedly on April 6th, 2011. The money was owed by Ukrainian firm Univermag.
The assignment was signed by Quinn snr, for Demesne; Peter Quinn, for Innishmore; and Larysa Yanez Puga, for Univermag.
On October 7th, 2011, Innishmore entered an agreement with Lyndhurst Development Trading SA, of the British Virgin Islands, with Peter Quinn signing for Innishmore. IBRC believed the purpose was so that Lyndhurst could assert its right to the debt, place Univermag into receivership, and seize the Kiev shopping centre Univermag owns.
Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne said Lyndhurst was controlled by the Quinns and was to be used to “strip the assets of Univermag”.