STATE ASSETS agency Nama was prepared to allow a developer’s wife to keep €7 million from €17 million in cash transferred to her by her husband in a deal it offered the couple during negotiations on the repayment of loans worth €457 million.
The High Court heard yesterday that developer David Daly, whose properties include the Louis Vuitton store on London’s Bond Street, transferred €80 million in assets, including €17 million in cash, to his wife Mary in 2009 for tax reasons.
Mr Daly and his family owe AIB €457 million on loans which have been transferred to Nama. The agency has appointed receivers to his British properties while the bank has taken control of his Irish assets.
Nama originally wanted Mrs Daly to transfer the €80 million back to her husband in order to give it control of the assets. It emerged in court yesterday that during negotiations, in relation to the cash transferred, it offered to accept €10 million of the €17 million she originally received.
The court heard that Ms Daly did not agree to this as she did not want to hand over all the assets that Nama was seeking.
It is not known what portion of the original €17 million in cash is still available about two years after Mr Daly gave it to his wife. Nama would not be in a position to pursue cash that had been spent other than in the acquisition of a tangible asset.
Any cash funds Nama did succeed in recovering from the Dalys would be put towards paying off Mr Daly’s debt. Nama made no comment on the case yesterday.
In the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Michael Peart granted Mr Daly, his daughter Joanne and son Paul leave to proceed with their legal challenges to Nama’s demand for immediate repayment of their loans.
They argued that the agency should have given them a hearing before it decided to issue letters of demand for repayment of the loans last June.
However, they failed to get injunctions restraining AIB’s receiver, Jim Hamilton, from taking control of their Irish assets, and Nama’s receivers, Shay Bannon and Sarah Rayment, from managing their UK properties.
Mr Daly paid about €130 million in 2004 for the Bond Street block that now houses the Louis Vuitton store. While his main Irish business is Albany Homes, he personally invested in a range of Irish and British properties during the last decade, funding it with cash borrowed from AIB.
Separately yesterday, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan criticised Nama, saying it was more focused on making a profit than on delivering housing to those on waiting lists.
He said he was not happy with Nama’s response to efforts by himself and Minister of State Willie Penrose to get the agency to make properties available for social housing.
