Quinn accuses Anglo of pursuing vendetta 'against me and my children'

Businessman Sean Quinn has today accused Anglo Irish Bank of pursuing a vendetta against his family.

"It is absolutely apparent that Anglo’s priority is to pursue a vendetta against me and my children," he said.

The former chairman of the Quinn Group also warned that thousands of jobs are at risk at his former companies, following a drop in trading.

In a statement, he also alleges that 38 years of his hard work to build the companies has been destroyed by Anglo Irish Bank in less than five months.

The statement claims the Minister for Finance "appears to have been seriously misled last April when he stated that the 'deal' Anglo agreed with international banks and bondholders for the Quinn Group involved a substantial write-down of the Group's €1.27bn debt".

The statement also accuses the bank of "ignoring its obligations to the Irish taxpayer, the Group and its employees.

"The reality now is that thousands of jobs are at risk".

Sean Quinn's statement in full:

"The Minister for Finance, Mr Michael Noonan T.D., appears to have been seriously misled last April when he stated that the ‘deal’ Anglo agreed with international banks and bondholders for the Quinn Group involved a substantial write-down of the Group’s €1.27bn debt.

"In the course of an interview on April 14, 2011 Minister Noonan stated: 'The bondholders took a heavy hit in the negotiations with Anglo... I think they took a hit of close to about 50%'

"Contrary to this statement, there has been no write-down whatsoever of debt due to the international banks and bondholders of Quinn Group. The reality is that the debt has simply been re-assigned to various Quinn Group companies.

"The questions need to be asked are: Who misled the Minister for Finance? Why was he misled?

"Prior to the actions of Anglo Irish Bank on April 14 last to take over the Quinn Group and restructure its businesses, circa €30m per annum was the interest figure payable on the entire €1.27bn of Quinn Group borrowing.

"The ‘deal’ agreed by Anglo with the banks and bondholders has now seen the Group’s interest payments soaring by over 300% to circa €100m per annum.

"Since Anglo chose to place the Quinn Group into effective receivership, with all the consequences that such a process entails for the ‘bottom line’ of a business, EBITDA for 2011 forecast for this year has already been dramatically reduced to €80m. This is clearly unsustainable.

"It is my view that Anglo’s actions and agreement with the international banks and bondholders represents the worst possible "deal" that could have been negotiated on behalf of the Irish taxpayer, the Quinn Group and its employees.

"Indeed, the deal as a whole makes absolutely no sense for the Irish taxpayer who cannot recover debt from an enterprise that has effectively been brought to its knees over the last number of months.

"The 38 years of hard work to build the Quinn Group with the unending support of staff and the wider community has all but been destroyed by Anglo in less than five months."

"It is absolutely apparent that Anglo’s priority is to pursue a vendetta against me and my children – while totally ignoring its obligations to the Irish taxpayer, the Group and its employees.

"The reality now is that thousands of jobs are at risk."