Developer loses action over riverfront status-stripping

A prominent property developer today lost a court action taken against the British government after he was dropped as front-runner for a €134m riverfront redevelopment in Belfast.

Peter Curistan and his Sheridan Group were stripped of preferred-developer status months after an MP made unfounded allegations in the House of Commons that he was linked to “IRA dirty money”.

The Department of Regional Development (DRD) dropped him as preferred developer just months after Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the DUP, and now finance minister in the Stormont Assembly, used parliamentary privilege to make the claim.

Mr Curistan sought a judicial review in the Northern Ireland High Court challenging the DRD decision – made under direct rule – claiming that the MP’s comments seriously damaged his company.

Mr Justice Gillen rejected his application – though he branded the allegation against Mr Curistan as “baseless”.

The judge said the British government took the decision because the Sheridan Group failed a due diligence test.

The businessman said he is disappointed at the decision but “completely satisfied with the comprehensive vindication” of his reputation.

He said he and his lawyers are carefully considering whether to appeal against the decision.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Gillen said he is not satisfied that the evidence presented to the court was compelling enough to establish bad faith by the DRD and co-respondent the Laganside Corporation – or with improper motive under the pretence of a proper purpose.

The judge said he considers that Mr Curistan “permitted his understandable indignation at the baseless allegations of money-laundering to combine with his profound disappointment at losing the position of preferred developer to so colour his attitude to the whole process of due diligence that he has lost sight of the deficiencies in corporate governance identified in the applicant.

“It is these identified deficiencies which are the real reasons why the decisions of the respondents have been made, in my view.”

The judge added that the climate of suspicion engendered was contributed to by some “incautious and infelicitous statements and correspondence emanating from a few senior civil servants”.

This served, in part, to fuel the suspicions of the Sheridan Group, he said.

He concluded that he was not persuaded that there was a deliberate lack of candour or an intention to wilfully mislead on the part of the DSD or Laganside Corporation.

After the decision, Mr Sheridan said he is obviously disappointed.

But he said: “Nevertheless, I am completely satisfied with the comprehensive vindication of my own personal reputation, and that of my company, by the trial judge in relation to the malicious and unfounded allegations made by Peter Robinson in the privileged confines of the House of Commons some time ago.

“I am disappointed that in the light of what was said in court on behalf of the Government by their senior counsel and by the judge in his judgment that the minister has still had neither the courage nor the good grace to admit that he was wrong and to withdraw his hurtful and deeply wounding claims about me and my company.”

He said he remains absolutely resolute in his determination to continue to “vigorously prosecute the ongoing libel actions against a number of newspapers who had, at the time, compounded and exacerbated the untold damage inflicted on my reputation”.

He added: “I and my family have had to live with this stigma for almost two years now, and I am therefore relieved that the categorical and uncontradicted evidence given during the judicial review hearing on behalf of the Government has now gone some way towards alleviating the distress suffered by myself and my family.”

Mr Curistan was the developer of Belfast’s hugely successful Millennium project - the Odyssey entertainment complex beside Queen’s Quay and which he announced he had sold in a £100 million deal last summer.

Despite the disappointment of the case, he said he is continuing to promote development in Ireland, the UK and further afield.