Cork woman, 78, wins case to wind up Irish firm linked to collapsed German property firm

The order involves an Irish-registered company MUT 103, which was one of the investment vehicles used by the Irish distributor Wealth Options Trustees Ltd (WOTL) whose head office is in Kildare.   

A 78-year-old woman from Cork, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for 40 years, has won a High Court petition for the winding up of an Irish-based company that helped raise a total of €107m from investors in Ireland on behalf of a now-collapsed German property firm.  

The order involves an Irish-registered company MUT 103, which was one of the investment vehicles used by the Irish distributor Wealth Options Trustees Ltd (WOTL) whose head office is in Kildare.   

In recent years, WOTL had raised a total of €107m from Irish investors through a network of appointed brokers. The funds were put into the MUT 103 company and another vehicle called MUT 116 on behalf of the Germany Property Group, a property firm also known under its former names of Dolphin Capital and Dolphin Trust.  

Money had been raised from more than 1,800 Irish investors through issuing loan notes for the purpose of buying and renovating listed buildings in Germany. The German Property Group was principally run by investor Charles Smethurst in Germany before it went into insolvency administration in Bremen in July last year, following allegations that the funds may have been misused.

Over €1bn collected

The funds raised by the German Property Group from Ireland were part of an estimated amount of well over €1bn collected from investors across the globe. In Ireland, the investment products were sold by brokers to investors. 

The corporate headquarters of the German Property Group, formerly called Dolphin Trust, which went into insolvency administration in Bremen in July last year. Picture: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

The petition to wind up the Irish-based MUT 103 was brought by Kathleen Dineen, a pensioner from Ballincollig, Cork, who the court heard has lived with multiple sclerosis for 40 years and who suffered a stroke in 2018.

The court heard that in 2017 she invested in German property through MUT 103, but was subsequently never paid back on her investment and is owed a total of €135,890, after the German Property Group ran into trouble.  

In a hearing earlier this month, the court heard from counsel for WOTL director Eanna McCloskey, who had opposed the winding-up petition, who said it was working to secure the interests of Irish investors in Germany. Mr Smethurst was the main director of the German Property Group and was a director of MUT 103 until early October last year. 

In his judgment on Wednesday, Mr Justice Brian O'Moore said WOTL had acted as administrators of the two companies and subsequently as the Irish distributor of the German Property Group investment products from June 2018.

Early concerns

In July 2019, in correspondence with brokers from WOTL, there were early concerns made about the German Property Group. In a meeting with WOTL and Irish brokers in Berlin on November 28, 2019, the German Property Group said that Irish investors would face a delay in their payments — but no further payments were since made.       

The judge ruled that WOTL's efforts appear to have achieved little for the Irish investors since the German firm's insolvency in July last year. 

Allowing the petition, the judge ruled that a liquidator could ascertain the views of investors.