IBRC challenges Quinn assets move

An application by members of the Quinn family to stop assets of Quinn companies being moved to Nama ignores the fact those assets have already been stripped by some family members, Irish Bank Resolution Corporation has claimed before the Commercial Court.

If IBRC does recover any of those assets after spending sums in Russia, Ukraine, and India, the effect of the Quinns getting the orders sought would mean those assets would be impounded pending the outcome of the family’s legal case, said Paul Gallagher SC, for the bank.

The Quinns had made out no legal basis for the orders as they did not own or control the companies.

IBRC special liquidator Kieran Wallace said in affidavits that the application by Patricia Quinn and her five children “ignores completely” Seán Quinn Sr’s “grossly reckless speculation in contracts for difference with Quinn Group funds”.

Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan yesterday began hearing arguments on behalf of IBRC in the continuing hearing of the Quinns application for orders preventing assets of Quinn companies being sold or moved to Nama by the end of this year in accordance with a direction of the Minister for Finance.

The Quinns claim, unless the orders are made, there will be no funds to meet a huge damages claim should the family win their action alleging they are not liable for €2.34bn loans made by Anglo to Quinn companies in 2007 and 2008 on grounds those loans were allegedly unlawfully made for the purpose of propping up the bank’s share price.

The hearing continues.