A family finance saga worthy of a Tarantino script
BACKGROUND:The Quinns’ position is that their efforts to put assets beyond IBRC’s reach led to those assets falling into other hands
THE CONTINUING battle between Seán Quinn’s family and the bank that once was Anglo includes elements that might sit well in a Quentin Tarantino movie.
On July 20th last, Seán Quinn jnr swore an affidavit for the High Court, as did his father, and his cousin, Peter Darragh Quinn.
They had been found guilty of contempt of court weeks earlier and the affidavits outlined what they had been doing to try to undo their efforts to put assets beyond the reach of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which incorporates Anglo.
Included in Quinn jnr’s affidavit were details of payments made to an Irish company, Cranre Property Services Ltd, which is owned by a Swedish trust set up for the benefit of Quinn snr’s grandchildren.
He told how, in January of this year, he and his cousin met Larissa Yanez Puga, who looked after a shopping centre in Kiev owned by the Quinn family. Also at the meeting were a lawyer, Mr Gurtovy, and two others, Mr Orlov and Mr Zaitsev, whom, he said, he was told were “security”.
Somebody secretly filmed the meeting and the video was subsequently given to the Mail on Sunday.
Quinn said the meeting involved a discussion of payments due to Cranre. In all, the company was owed $500,000. Previous payments had been made by money transfer to Cranre’s AIB account in Blanchardstown, but this time Puga and the Russian men with her offered a payment of $100,000 in cash. “We expressed our difficulty in receiving payment in this form,” said Quinn jnr.
He went on to recount how, after the meeting, the two Irishmen, Puga, and one of her associates drove to a bank on the way to the airport to see if an account could be opened for the money. However, the bank was closed. Quinn is silent as to what happened the cash.
A second issue under discussion had to do with Peter Quinn and a pending court hearing. Puga, Peter Quinn said in his affidavit, wanted him to lie to the Kiev courts, a position put to him “in an intimidating manner”.
Peter Quinn said he would not travel back to Ukraine. “I am not prepared to travel in person to the Ukraine to give evidence against Ms Puga [and others] as I fear that, if I should do so, my personal safety would be in jeopardy.”
