€18m US court ruling against Sean Dunne

A US jury in the Sean Dunne civil trial has awarded just over €18m to his bankruptcy trustee after finding he had proved that the bankrupt Carlow property developer fraudulently transferred some assets to put them beyond the reach of creditors. The jurors made the award at the Connecticut district court on the fourth day of their deliberations following a five-week trial taken over the alleged illegal transfer of assets.

They awarded Mr Dunne’s US bankruptcy trustee, Richard Coan, a total of €18.04m after finding that he had proved that “Dunne engaged in an intentionally fraudulent money transfer of €3,015,000 from his joint Credit Suisse account with Gayle Killilea to Gayle Killilea’s individual account in violation of lrish law”.

The award includes €14m from the sale in 2013 of Walford, a house on Shrewsbury Rd, Dublin, which was owned by Mr Dunne and Ms Killilea and bought by Mr Dunne for €58m eight years earlier, and a €3.015m cash transfer from Mr Dunne to Ms Killilea in 2008 from a Credit Suisse account.

The rest of the award was made up of transfers from Mr Dunne to Ms Killilea of other properties in North Wall Quay and other assets. However, the jury found in favour of the defendants in relation to a number of other transfers. The 10-person jury has ordered Ms Killilea to pay all the damages.

Mr Coan’s lead attorney, Thomas Curran, said: “We’re very grateful. We think the jury augustly considered all the evidence.”

Ms Killilea said they will look at aspects of the case and may pursue an appeal.