Courts may face challenge by Quinn

BUSINESSMAN Sean Quinn and his family may challenge the jurisdiction of the courts to hear proceedings by Anglo Irish Bank aimed at preventing the family transferring assets, over which the bank holds security, from Swedish companies which hold the family’s properties in several countries.

Anglo, owed €2.8 billion by Quinn interests, claims the Quinn side had set up a “mirror corporate structure” — The Cranaghan Foundation — in a “systematic attempt” to transfer assets to “mirror” Quinn companies for the benefit of the Quinn family, including Sean Quinn’s children and grandchildren.

Such actions were “severely hampering” Anglo’s ability to deal effectively with the property assets and it was concerned those assets may “simply disappear,” Anglo senior executive Richard Woodhouse said in an affidavit.