Quinn family moves 'mostly reactive'

No one was in overall control of the Quinn family’s efforts last year to secure valuable assets from attempt by Anglo Irish Bank to seize them, a nephew of the bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn has told the High Court.

Peter Quinn, who used to manage an extensive portfolio of international properties for the five adult children of Seán Quinn, said Mr Quinn’s daughter, Aoife Quinn, was responsible for what happened in Sweden and Cyprus, while he advised Ms Quinn and other members of the family about developments in Russia and Ukraine. He said the family’s moves were mostly reactive.

He also said he did not know what had happened to $4.5 million (€3.39 million) moved from one account to another in Russia last year even though he was the sole shareholder of the Russia company, Finansstroy, that owned the accounts. Asked if the money was still in the account, he said he did not know.

Mr Quinn is continuing his evidence to a case where the State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which now owns Anglo, is seeking to have him, Seán Quinn, and Seán Quinn jnr jailed for contempt. The bank alleges the men continued trying to put assets beyond Anglo’s reach after an order was made by Mr Justice Frank Clarke on June 27th last, forbidding such actions. The men deny the charge.

Paul Gallagher SC, for the bank, said that on June 20th, 2011, a solicitor with Eversheds had sworn an affidavit based on instructions from the Quinns to make an application to the courts in Cyprus aimed at protecting the ownership of property companies in Russia that were in turn owned by Cypriot companies.

However, documents now being produced indicated that at this stage Ms Quinn had been appointed director of the Cypriot companies, replacing Kevin Lunney. The Cypriot court was not told this, Mr Gallagher said. Mr Quinn, who was director general of one of the Russian companies involved, Finansstroy, that was in turn owned by a Cypriot company, said he was not involved in the case.

He agreed that at the time, according to the documents, he had become the sole shareholder of Finansstroy and that Stephen Kelly, a son-in-law of Seán Quinn, had become the sole shareholder of another Russian property company that had been formerly owned by a Cypriot company. The Cypriot court was not told this and was told the companies were still owned by Cypriot companies.

He agreed that a subsequent affidavit to the Cypriot courts sworn by Ms Quinn was not correct in so far as it outlined certain events in Russia affecting Finansstroy. When Mr Gallagher said it was untrue, Mr Quinn said it wasn’t correct. “False and untrue information was supplied to the Cypriot court,” Mr Gallagher said. “It is incorrect, yes,” said Mr Quinn.

Mr Quinn said Aoife Quinn had subsequently told him that it had been an “oversight” on her part not to tell the Cypriot court that she was a director of the Cypriot companies the application concerned.

Mr Gallagher, referring to “purported” changes in the shareholdings of the Russian companies, suggested that the changes had not occurred on the dates that appeared on the documents and that this explained how the Cypriot court could be told what it was told in June. Mr Quinn said he would not put a solicitor in a position where the solicitor had sworn an affidavit to a court on the basis of false information. He pointed out he was not a party to the Cypriot proceedings.

At one stage during his cross-examination Mr Quinn said: “I’m not surprised by anything that has happened since the start of these proceedings or since the start of the battle between Anglo and the Quinns.”