Quinn nephew denies trust knowledge despite signatures

A nephew of Sean Quinn has told the High Court he knew nothing about a trust set up for the Quinn family despite several signatures of his witnessing documents related to that trust.

He was in the habit of signing “bundles” of documents and while no-one in the family had said anything to him about a trust, he “would not be surprised by anything” in the “debacle” between Anglo Irish Bank and the Quinns, Peter Darragh Quinn said.

Mr Quinn also said he doesn’t know anything about what happened to a sum of $4.5m moved between accounts of a Russian company of which he was the sole signatory.

No-one, he said, was in “overall control” of steps taken in various international jurisdictions with a view to putting multi-million assets of the Quinn international property group beyond the reach of Anglo.

There was “no huge overall strategy”, it was “very much a fire-fighting thing” and actions taken were “reactive”, in response to what Anglo did. If that lead to court cases in every jurisdiction, “so be it”, he added.

Mr Quinn said he was never involved at “a higher level” and had no involvement in court proceedings involving the Quinns in Cyprus and Sweden concerning Quinn companies.

The cross-examination of Mr Quinn, acting general manager of international property assets held by the Quinn Group from 2009, continued yesterday in the hearing before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne of the bank’s application for orders for attachment and committal against him, Sean Quinn Snr and Sean Quinn Jnr for alleged contempt.

The bank contends the three acted in contempt of court orders of June and July 2011 restraining dissipation of assets in the group. In denying those claims, they have argued various steps to place assets beyond Anglos’ reach were carried out prior to the orders.

Among the claims against Peter Quinn is that he participated in the assignment of Quinn companies loans totalling €163m for nominal consideration to Galfis Overseas Ltd, a Belize-registered company allegedly controlled by the Quinns, on or after July 20, 2011. It is also alleged he and Sean Quinn Snr deliberately backdated assignments of multi-million euro loans so it would appear they occurred on Apr 4 2011, prior to the court orders.

On his fourth day in the witness box, Peter Quinn agreed with Paul Gallagher SC, for IBRC, that incorrect information was given by the Quinn side to a court in Cyprus when it granted injunctions sought by the family against the bank.

Peter Quinn stressed he himself was not involved in the Cyprus case and said Aoife Quinn had dealt with matters in proceedings in Cyprus and Sweden.

He agreed while the family had sought injunctions restraining changes in the structure and shareholdings of various Quinn companies, steps were taken by them in the days prior to the Cyprus hearing which altered shareholdings.