Quinn nephew: I’m not asset mastermind

A nephew of bankrupt businessman Sean Quinn denies being the “mastermind” of a strategy to put multimillion-euro assets of the Quinn family beyond the reach of Anglo Irish Bank, but agreed steps taken were “wrong and unethical”, although he did not believe they breached Russian law.

Peter Darragh Quinn also told the High Court he had “no clue” about an allegedly false and contrived arbitration award of $100m made in June 2011 against a Russian company, of which he was general director, in favour of an off-shore shelf company, Belize-registered Galfis Overseas Ltd, alleged by Anglo, now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, to be controlled by Quinn parties.

Anglo alleges the award, made weeks before the bank secured court orders restraining dissipation of assets valued up to €500m in the Quinn international property group (IPG), was part of a strategy to strip assets worth over $145m from Russian company Finansstroy.