Dunne can have his say, but it doesn’t mean the State should let him off
Most people cannot comprehend the brass neck he has exhibited. He has not merely applied for bankruptcy in the US, to avoid the full repayment of his massive debts in Ireland, but he boasted about his actions, and lashed out against many of his detractors in an almost comical outburst published in the Sunday Independent.
All of this, while he has continued to enjoy a highly expensive lifestyle over the last five years, spending money freely that could have been used to reduce his debts further. This, remember, is a man against whom Nama — the national assets management agency, a debt recovery agency that the State owns on behalf of all its citizens — secured a High Court judgment for the repayment of €185 million. He will repay only a tiny fraction of that if his bankruptcy application is successful.
This is also a man who, with his wife Gayle Killilea, pays rent of about $20,000 a month to live in a private estate in one of the wealthiest communities on the US east coast, in one of the most affluent states in America. They live in a 16-room mansion, in a property once offered for sale at $11.5m (€8.9m) and which boasts eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a two-storey atrium, an outdoor swimming pool and a hot tub. Few of his actions surprise me however. From my experiences as a journalist reporting on business people for over 25 years I reckon there must be dozens of Irish businessmen just like Dunne, every bit as arrogant, vain and, at times, delusional, but also, in an unconventional manner, cunning and tactical.
Here’s a list of the type of things they say when they are in trouble or want to court public opinion: I have created jobs in Ireland; I could have invested my money elsewhere; I paid taxes in Ireland; I am a patriot; I will not have my reputation traduced; You will be hearing from my lawyers.
So, if you missed it, what did Dunne have to say for himself in his Easter Sunday missive? Hilariously, he said that “I consider my debt to the Irish State to be cleared”, even if he hasn’t paid Nama what he legally owes. He has paid “close on €100m in personal taxes” over his life however and “I estimate that I employed over 200 people annually over a 25-year-period in the Irish economy and contributed €250m to the Irish exchequer.” He believes that the fact that developers are “now pariahs” conveys the message “that if you invest and live in Ireland, you are a fool and will eventually be subject of attack”. He argued that the Irish economy will not recover “as long as this message permeates”.
He is a victim of Nama, which he accused of waging a campaign “to pursue non-debtor members of my family” in a bid to “rape their finances in an effort to pay off my debts”. He said its actions against him amount to “vexatious litigation” and “a disgrace”. Ulster Bank is at the same game, as he sees it. “Both of these banks have me on a wanted list and, like the Americans in Iraq, Seán Dunne is the ace of spades,” he wrote, in a reference to the list of the main targets the US had in Iraq, with each of the 52 assigned a playing card for ease of identification.
He anticipates personal resurrection apparently. Good Friday was “an appropriate day” to file for bankruptcy because his two main creditors allegedly had engaged in a “game of persecution” against him. “At least now, I have the pain of certainty rather than the uncertainty of pain,” he claimed. “Unlike Jesus, I don’t expect to rise again in three days, but I certainly hope to make great strides within the next three years, debt-free, with a clean slate and my fate back in my own hands.”
He complained that his creditors “fail to distinguish between me and my wife as separate entities who own separate assets”. Of his wife, a former gossip columnist with Sunday newspapers, he writes: “The last time I saw her, she did not weigh 200 pounds and have grey hair and stubble”.
But there is also some method to the apparent madness. Dunne looks as if he is playing a game, partly prompted by desperation but also predicated on his business instincts, those very traits that got him into his current mess.
It seems he believes he can manipulate some public opinion. I suspect he wants to portray himself as a victim deserving of sympathy and support. To achieve that he wants to be recognised as a visionary, somebody whose ambitions were misunderstood and who thereby has been mistreated. Only the really smart people will understand that. It is entirely possible too that he actually believes his own rhetoric.
Here are some of the pertinent facts: Under US bankruptcy law, a stay is put on any litigation against individuals once they file for bankruptcy, automatically halting any legal actions against them. Dunne’s move came days before Dunne’s wife was to object to a court order compelling her to hand over details of any properties or money transferred to her from her husband since 2008.
Nama has claimed that he had fraudulently transferred a half-share in an apartment in Geneva more than three years ago and that she has used his money to develop properties in Greenwich, Connecticut. Nama has shown that Dunne’s name cropped up on documents behind some of the transactions, to be subsequently “crossed out” and signed by her instead.
His name appeared as the principal of three US firms set up in 2010 but he later said that his name had been listed in error and that his wife was, in fact, the sole member of the companies.
No wonder then that Nama hired international forensic accountants Kroll to carry out a trawl of Dunne’s assets in 2011.
Dunne has not been singled out for disproportionate treatment… if anything people have a right to ask if Nama has been soft and late in chasing him down. He apparently gave Killilea more than €10m since 2005 when their first child was born and while he was still financially solvent but Nama has claimed it is entitled to know more about the sources of her alleged independent wealth. US lawyers for Nama have claimed that the effort by the Dunnes to dismiss its lawsuit was an attempt to make a “complex web” of fraudulent transactions look “very innocuous and mundane”. What skills does a former gossip columnist have as a property developer?
Nama has not singled out Dunne for special treatment. Over the last year it has taken enforcement action against many developers who had either no prospect of surviving financially or who had not co-operated. There has been a tendency for some developers to “put assets beyond the reach” of Nama, in other words attempting to reduce the amount of money that the State can recover on our behalf. This includes assets such as properties, company shares and a variety of personal items transferred to spouses, other family members and third parties. As of last July, the agency had reversed the transfer of about €160m worth of assets but it has a target of €500m.
Dunne is entitled to try to protect his position. He is using the law as a weapon and has launched a public relations offensive in the media. He is entitled to chance his arm.
The State is required not to let him off the hook.
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