RELATIVES OF businessman Seán Quinn have been accused of stripping $193 million (€142 million) in assets from two Russian companies for the benefit of his family in return for $1,000 and a laptop computer worth $380.
Anglo Irish Bank made the claims in the latest hearing in the complex legal battle between the State-owned bank and Mr Quinn’s wife and children for control of the family’s international properties.
In a Cyprus court hearing, Anglo claimed that Mr Quinn’s wife and five children used a court injunction as cover for “unlawful and hidden actions” to put assets beyond the reach of Anglo, which is owed €2.8 billion by the family. This included transferring the assets of a Russian firm, Finansstroy, which owns the Kutuzoff Tower office block in Moscow, worth $180 million, to their cousin Peter Quinn for about $1,000.
The block is the most valuable asset in the family’s international property portfolio which stretches to Turkey, Ukraine and India.
The bank also claimed the family transferred assets worth $13.5 million at another Russian company, Red Sector – the owner of a DIY store – to Stephen Kelly, the husband of Mr Quinn’s daughter Aoife, in return for the $380 laptop computer.
The claims are contained in an affidavit sworn by Anglo executive Richard Woodhouse, which was opened in court, despite repeated attempts by the family to block or postpone its admission in the case.
Anglo is seeking to lift the injunction obtained by the family last June which stops the bank seizing control of the properties. The document contained material that was essential to understanding the case, Anglo argued. The Quinns said the claims were “scandalous”, “irrelevant”, “vexatious” and “frivolous”.
The battle for control of the family’s international properties, worth about €500 million, has been the subject of lawsuits in Ireland, Cyprus, Sweden and Russia, where the firms behind the properties are based.
Just over €2.3 billion of the family’s debt to Anglo arose from loans to cover Mr Quinn’s losses on Anglo’s share price, which collapsed in the 2008 financial crash. The bank claims the family made changes to international firms giving them full control of Russian properties.
This enabled the firms to accept an unsubstantiated claim for $276 million from a company in the Central American country of Belize that was purportedly unconnected with the family but which Anglo believes is owned by them or for their benefit.
A source close to the family said that any suggestions of criminality against Mr Quinn or his family were “baseless and hardly deserving of comment”. “Such spurious allegations will be seen for what they really are; yet another attempt, on the part of Anglo, to blacken the name of Seán Quinn and his family,” said the source.
