Dunne bankruptcy hearing to be heard in December

An application by property developer Sean Dunne to end his US bankruptcy case will be heard by a Connecticut judge at trial in December.

Judge Alan Shiff set the trial date for December 3rd in a court filing yesterday. He had previous given parties until today to file objections to Mr Dunne’s bid not to seek a discharge from bankruptcy in the US in favour of proceeding with a single bankruptcy case in Ireland.

The National Asset Management Agency and Ulster Bank, Mr Dunne's two biggest creditors which are owed the bulk of his €700 million in debts, said last month they intended to object to his motion to dismiss his US bankruptcy.

The court-appointed official investigating Mr Dunne’s finances is also objecting to the dismissal of the case.

The court ordered discovery between the parties, a subject of long-running disagreement between Mr Dunne and his creditors in his 18-month-old US bankruptcy case, to be completed by the end of October.

The Co Carlow-born developer made the surprise bid to withdraw his US bankruptcy case telling the court last month that he could not afford to defend Nama’s challenge against his discharge from his debts.

Lawyers for Mr Dunne's bankruptcy trustee told Judge Shiff last month that dismissing the case at this stage would "not be in the best interests of creditors" as the trustee was considering taking action to recover tens of millions of euro of assets transferred by the developer to his wife, Gayle Killilea Dunne, the former newspaper gossip columnist.