Revenue seeks winding up of third company linked to BlackBee group

Corporate Enforcement Authority wants to file an affidavit in the case

Revenue is asking the High Court to wind up a third company that is linked to the troubled Cork-based BlackBee investment group.

Revenue is asking the High Court to wind up a third company that is linked to the troubled Cork-based BlackBee investment group.

Mr Justice Oisín Quinn on Monday agreed to adjourn Revenue’s petition for four weeks after hearing that the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) wants to file an affidavit in the case.

No details of the petition for the winding-up of BlackBee Group Holdings Limited were outlined to the court before Sally O’Neill, counsel for Revenue, consented to the matter being rescheduled for February 10th.

The CEA’s barrister, Arthur Cunningham, said his client took enforcement action against the company last July. He said the court gave the company and its founder, David O’Shea, four months to comply with certain filing obligations. This period lapsed without compliance, he said.

Mr O’Shea was not in court on Monday.

Mr Cunningham said the corporate watchdog wants to submit an affidavit as part of Revenue’s case, but it will not interfere with the application.

Barrister Eoin Coffey said his clients, the liquidators of two BlackBee entities, want to engage with Revenue in relation to its petition.

The High Court appointed the liquidators to another BlackBee investment vehicle, BlackBee Investments Limited, in May 2023 on foot of an application by the Central Bank. The appointments of Luke Charleton and Colin Farquharson of EY came as the regulator warned of “significant” governance concerns about the investment fund.

Filed claims

More than 1,600 former clients of BlackBee Investments have since filed claims with the State’s investor compensation scheme. A report by the Investor Compensation Company published last month said it remains unclear whether the losses will be compensable, as the liquidators of the company have yet to conclude their investigations.

The liquidators last month secured the winding-up of another related company, City Quarter Capital II plc, of which Mr O’Shea is the principal. The court heard City Quarter issued bonds in which BlackBee Investments typically invested client funds.

The liquidators wanted City Quarter’s winding up as they said they had been denied access to its books and records during the court of their work in the liquidation of BlackBee Investments.

In a High Court judgment appointing the liquidators to City Quarter last month, Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy noted the company had not filed accounts since 2018. At that point its debts “dramatically exceeded” its assets, said the judge, adding that he was satisfied City Quarter could not pay its debts.

Mr Justice Mulcahy said it is in the investors’ interests that the liquidators of these two entities investigate where investment money was transferred.

The judge noted there appear to be 61 companies within the BlackBee structure.