Quinn gets €118m bill for role in asset-strip

Peter Darragh Quinn, a nephew of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn, has been ordered to pay $188m (€144m) damages to Irish Bank Resolution Corporation over his “pivotal” role in a scheme to strip multimillion-euro assets from the Quinn family’s international property group (IPG).

Three Russian companies in the IPG were also told by the Commercial Court to pay damages totalling more than €590m.

The $188m in Mr Quinn’s case marks the “lost value” of the Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow, previ-ously described as the most valuable asset in the IPG.

IBRC special liquidator Kieran Wallace had said evidence and Mr Quinn’s own admissions showed he was a “key initiator” of the scheme and instrumental in unlawfully placing a Russian company, Finansstroy, owner of the tower and other assets, into bankruptcy and beyond IBRC’s reach, Mr Justice Peter Kelly said.

Three Russian companies — CJSC Vneshkonsla, OOO RLC-Development, and OOO Stroitelnye Tekhnologhi — were told to pay €252m, $239m, and $201m damages respectively for their involvement in the scheme. Those sums reflect the value of assets owned by other Russian companies in the IPG which the bank said were unlawfully assigned to the defendant companies.

Mr Justice Kelly made the orders yesterday after entering judgment in February against Mr Quinn and four companies when they failed to enter defences or appearances to the bank’s case.

In a letter read by the judge, Mr Quinn sought an adjournment pending appeals to the European Court of Human Rights and Supreme Court over a High Court finding he acted in contempt of court orders.

Refusing the adjournment, the judge said Mr Quinn remained in “flagrant” contempt and the adjournment application was without merit.