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Ireland's former richest man Sean Quinn ordered to pay $2.26 billion to Anglo Irish Bank

Quinn named Ireland’s richest man just three years ago

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 7:36 AM

Updated Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 9:52 AM

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Sean Quinn

The former Irish billionaire, Sean Quinn, has been ordered to repay $2.26 billion in debts to Anglo Irish Bank, in a landmark judgment.

Quinn, who was formerly Ireland’s richest man, has been ordered to pay Anglo a further $554 million, following a separate court judgment last week.

Judge Peter Kelly told the Commercial Court that the business tycoon had offered no defense to the orders sought by Anglo Irish Bank, which was nationalized during Ireland’s banking crisis.

Quinn declared bankruptcy in a Belfast court earlier in November, admitting that he owed $554 million in debts and had just €66,000 in assets.

He was listed as Ireland’s richest man by Forbes magazine three years ago, with a fortune estimated at $6bn.

However, the Fermanagh businessman’s insurance, cement, and property empire collapsed in 2010 after the share price of Anglo dramatically dropped and the bank was nationalized.

Throughout the years he had built up a 28percent stake in Anglo, through a number of investments.
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Mike Aynsley, chief executive of Anglo told the court it was it important to recover from Quinn as much of the debt as possible due to the huge amount of taxpayers’ money used to prevent the bank collapsing.

“Mr Quinn gave the bank guarantees and indemnities in respect of extensive borrowings which benefited Quinn companies and Quinn family members. Today’s commercial court judgment gives clear, unambiguous recognition to the legal obligations of Mr Quinn in relation to these guarantees and that is welcomed today,” Aynsley said.

In a response to Monday’s judgement, Quinn expressed disappointment.

“Since I have already been declared bankrupt in Northern Ireland, I was effectively unable to defend these proceedings.

“However, it is well known that members of my family are currently disputing the legitimacy of the loans involved, through a High Court action in Dublin.”

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ciarajoyce | Dec 01, 2011, 12:32 AM EST

I agree with CaptainCon. Get discovery of his accountant and attorney records for the time when the money was certainly moving and at least a year before, cause he'd have been borrowing money long after he officially knew his "wealth" was worthless. A Belfast Court with an English judge, or who are they using for judges currently? Certainly not folks in the south! And he's jurisdiction shopping with an appeal of the first effort to track down the money by going to the High Court in Dublin, the act of a truly low class of criminal! RockNReel: I think the "respect" ship has sailed. The Bank's Directors should pay up whatever Quinn can't find -- that should loosen some tongues.

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IrelandNorth | Nov 30, 2011, 07:45 AM EST

What a surreal situation. Wealthy entrepreneure being relentlessly pursued by a broke bank since nationalised by the Irish government, while the former directors of the former bank appear to get off scot free. Casino capitalism by gamblers unaminious beign payed for with Irish citizens Confirmation money.

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RockNReel | Nov 29, 2011, 01:47 PM EST

I totally agree with captain con below. Quinn hurriedly started hiding his assetts when he knew the game was up and in fact transferred houses and assets into both members of his extended family and even their boyfriends in an effort to hide his wealth. One guy received a Laptop for agreeing to the scam. If he gets away with this its no different to a drug dealer or a gangster stashing away his assets to fool the authorities. He would be far better face the facts and pay the piper !! There will be very little respect for him if he does otherwise.

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CaptainCon | Nov 29, 2011, 07:44 AM EST

'Members of my family' ... who were enriched by hurried donations of hundreds of millions by Quinn himself into their indvidual wealth portfolios in 2008- interestingly AFTER he had accumulated debts larger than his paper wealth. So where did that money come from and why was there an 800million euro hole subsequently found in Quinn Group's affairs in Ireland? The money and shareholdings divested to family members were in the full knowledge of an evasion of seizure policy. To be quite honest this man should be under arrest and his family's 'individual wealth porfolios' frozen by court order until all assets have been determined and confiscated where necessary to repay creditors which includes the Irish taxpayer.

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