Quinn claims financial regulator acted ‘illegally’

Seán Quinn last night claimed financial regulator Matthew Elderfield “illegally put an administrator into Quinn Direct” even though it was ” probably one of the most profitable insurers on the island of Ireland”.

He said the company was being run “extremely well” at the time. He questioned why Mr Elderfield did not, as has been done in financial institutions, put someone in for 3-6 months to “have a look at them”.

In an interview with TV3’s Vincent Browne programme, Mr Quinn freely admitted putting assets beyond the reach of Anglo Irish Bank. He denied the assets were collateral for the loans got from Anglo.

He said the assets were moved “12 months before there was a court order”.

“It wasn’t illegal. They didn’t own the assets. We moved as much assets as we could, assets that Anglo never loaned a penny to.

“We planned it on the days approaching April (2011). We made a move because they were going to take everything from us, they were putting our children on the dole. ”

He said the injunction preventing assets being moved came in Jun or Jul 2011 and even though the court found they were “liars” they did move anything since then.