Killilea fights Nama access to bank data

Gayle Killilea Dunne has gone on the offensive against attempts by Nama to gain access to her bank accounts and other financial information.

The wife of developer Seán Dunne is asking a bankruptcy court in the US to quash subpoenas issued by Ireland’s bad bank to various institutions, describing the moves as a “massive fishing expedition”.

Mr Dunne is in the middle of protracted bankruptcy proceedings in Connecticut, where he filed for protection against creditors in March, listing debts of close of $1bn (€744m) and assets of less than $50m.

Nama, through its subsidiary National Asset Loan Management, launched an adversary action against Dunne, claiming he has been less than truthful, in filings and hearings, about his financial affairs.

At the heart of its claim is that Dunne benefited financially from a series of property transactions in the US and in Switzerland, that he used his wife and others to hide his involvement that allegedly netted him millions of dollars.

But the attempts to extract information from Credit Suisse and First Republic, and properfty firm Coldwell Banker, breach Ms Killilea Dunne’s privacy rights and has nothing to do with the adversary action against Mr Dunne, a lawyer for Ms Killilea Dunne argued in a motion.

“Rather this is an attempt by NALM to use this adversary proceeding to gather information to be used against Killilea in an action to be filed against her,” lawyer Eric Henzy wrote.

“NALM should not be allowed to use this adversary proceeding to conduct this type of fishing expedition for the purpose of later pursuing claims against Killilea.”

NALM is seeing to engage in a “massive fishing expedition”, Mr Henzy wrote, adding that there are “no limits on the production requests based on time or relevance”.

“Thus, NALM seeks production of Killilea’s bank records for private matters, such as the purchase of private items for herself of her children, for periods of time that have nothing to do with the matters raised in the complaint.

The motion to block the subpoenas was filed on behalf of both Ms Killilea Dunne and Mountbrook USA.