MEMBERS OF the Quinn family cannot be trusted to abide by court orders, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) said yesterday, as it revealed it was seeking the urgent appointment of receivers to the worldwide assets of family members.
The bank cited the recent finding of contempt of court orders by Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne against Seán Quinn snr, his son Seán and his nephew Peter Darragh Quinn, and material that emerged in that case.
It was also very concerned about a recently published video recording of a January 2012 meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, showing Peter Quinn and Seán Quinn jnr discussing movement of money and showing Peter Quinn was “prepared to lie” to the High Court.
In an affidavit, Richard Woodhouse of IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, said the recording published last weekend in the Irish Mail on Sunday appeared to refer to attempts being made, “and which continue to be made”, to strip assets from a company holding a valuable asset, a shopping centre in Kiev, Ukraine, he said.
The video showed an exchange regarding large sums of money, he said. It also showed Peter Quinn stating he was in breach of a court injunction and, when asked would he lie in his testimony, laughing and responding: “I’d have to lie . . . that wouldn’t overly worry me.”
The footage also showed a discussion regarding Peter Quinn and Seán Quinn jnr’s desire to find a way to move $100,000 (€79,775) in cash from Kiev to an account in a safe place and a discussion about the logistics of transporting that sum in a way that is not detected, Mr Woodhouse said.
There were also references to “six million” and “five million” and a detailed discussion about the need for Peter Quinn to lie about signing contracts or he would go to jail, Mr Woodhouse added.
The video also featured references by Seán Quinn jnr to a company, CranRe, and the bank was increasingly concerned about the uses to which CranRe (a company within the Cranaghan Foundation, a Swedish trust structure set up by the Quinns) has being put, he said.
The matters disclosed in the video “are extremely serious”, he said. All of the activities of which the bank complained were co-ordinated for the benefit of the Quinn family and various members of the family took responsibility for various aspects of the asset-stripping strategy in different jurisdictions, he said.
Brian Murray SC, for IBRC, said it would be seeking orders appointing receivers over the worldwide assets of the Quinn children and two of their husbands – Stephen Kelly and Niall McPartland. The bank last week secured orders appointing receivers over the assets of Peter Quinn and Seán Quinn jnr.
While the bank has interim orders freezing the accounts of all those defendants below €50 million, it believes, given the contempt findings and the video recording, the defendants cannot be trusted to comply with the orders in an honest and forthright manner, Mr Woodhouse said.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said the bank could apply for the receivers’ appointment on July 24th next, when the court will hear the application to continue the account freezing orders pending the full hearing of the bank’s action to restrain dissipation of assets in the international property group. The defendants had liberty to file a reply to the matters set out, the judge added.
He was speaking after ruling that Seán Quinn snr was not entitled to defend a legal action which could result in judgment for more than €2.3 billion being entered against him in favour of the former Anglo Irish Bank.
