Computer files show extent of order breaches, says bank

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation claims that had material regarding huge payouts to the Quinn family been before the High Court earlier this year in a hearing to determine if family members breached court orders over asset stripping, it would have had an important influence on the court.

That hearing concerned Seán Quinn Sr, his son, and Peter Darragh Quinn.

In an affidavit, Richard Woodhouse of IBRC said “significant” documents had been obtained by the bankruptcy administrator appointed by it to Finansstroy, a Russian company in the Quinns’ international property group, from that company’s computer hard drive.

When the administrator took possession of the Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow, owned by Finansstroy, the computer server and software were damaged and it was clear many documents were removed immediately before he took possession of the building, the bank said.

The administrator arranged for a search of the hard drive which identified materials showing, among other matters, Mr Quinn Jr was directing, or was aware of, the extraction of funds from IPG companies in breach of a court order of Jun 27, 2011, Mr Woodhouse said.

He said the documents spanned Jul 2011 to Aug 31, 2012, and showed the extent to which Mr Quinn Jr exercised day-to-day control over companies in the IPG, despite his claims to the contrary.

The material allegedly showed Mr Quinn Jr was aware of the “deliberate backdating” to Jun 15, 2011, of employment contracts generated on Jul 27, 2011, in favour of members of the Quinn family so it would appear they were created before the Jun 27 order, he said.

An email of Jul 25, 2011, from Stephen Kelly, brother-in-law of Mr Quinn Jnr, was copied to Mr Quinn Jr, and had requested that Russian employment contracts documents for members of the Quinn family be backdated, he said.

He alleged that the documents supported the bank’s claims Mr Quinn Jr was involved in making a $500,000 (€386,000) payment to Larissa Puga, general director of Quinn Properties Ukraine.

IBRC also wants the Supreme Court to consider a video of a meeting in Kiev on Jul 21, 2012 which, the bank claims, showed Mr Quinn Jr was involved in an asset-stripping scheme in Ukraine.