NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish Pubs Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > News > Jailed former billionaire Sean Quinn blames Anglo for his downfall

Jailed former billionaire Sean Quinn blames Anglo for his downfall

Says 'They took all my money, they took my reputation”

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, November 3, 2012, 9:29 AM

Updated Saturday, November 3, 2012, 9:29 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

4 Comments

'They took all my money, they took my companies, they took my reputation and they put me in jail,' said Quinn, who was sentenced to nine weeks in prison.

Photo by PA

Formerly Ireland's richest man, Sean Quinn was sentenced to nine weeks in prison in Dublin on Friday.

'They took all my money, they took my companies, they took my reputation and they put me in jail,' said Quinn following his final hearing.

His journey from billionaire to bankrupt man saw him physically shrink to a shadow of his former self as he spoke to Irish journalists.

According to BreakingNews.ie, the 66-year-old had earlier squeezed into the packed courtroom to hear himself sentenced for his role in a scheme that put his $640 million in international property business beyond the reach of the former Anglo Irish Bank.

Quinn reportedly held a crumpled white handkerchief in his hand and rubbed his brow as the judge read out her findings. Tears fell when Quinn's lawyer told the court he would go straight to prison, without waiting on his Supreme Court appeal.

The inevitability of Quinn's jailing did little to diminish the Irish public’s shock at seeing Ireland’s former richest man, taken from the Four Courts to Mountjoy jail in a prison van.

Quinn's rise and fall were due to a condition that he himself identified as greed. 'I suppose I was always very greedy. I was never happy with what we had, and I was always looking for new opportunities,' he had once remarked in his heyday.

Placing the biggest financial bet in Irish history on Anglo Irish Bank when he was already Ireland's richest man he stood to become the UK's third richest person with a fortune of $12 billion or more. But the bet failed which led to the insurance business being taken from him by the regulator and eventually the entire company as Anglo Irish Bank sought security over its debts.

According to the BBC, Quinn's decision to sanction, support and add his signature to a plan to take half a billion euros worth of assets back from Anglo bank (which now owned them) was his most ill-judged move.

The Quinn family counters that the 'big case' regarding the legality of Anglo loans needs to be determined first before any action is taken to recover disputed assets.

Nster.com

E-mail

4 Comments

See all comments

SarahinLA | Nov 04, 2012, 08:29 AM EST

irishamerica46, you are spot on. During a recent visit I listened to a radio show where the prison population here in the states was critized (I think the figure mentioned was 2.3 million) as drastic. Shortly after this broadcast I heard an Irish news bulletin which reported on somebody who was before the courts, 'the accused was well known to gardai (police) with 123 previous convictions'. I immediately thought what the hell is this guy doing out on the streets in the first place? In relation to Sean Quinn, several rallies have been held in support of a man that the court believes has hidden assets from them and has held him in contempt of court. In the past few days, prior to this man receiving a jail sentence, a group has threatened 'civil unrest' if Mr Quinn was jailed and that (if he or someone in his family became sick from the stress etc.) there would be serious repurcusions for those involved - are they threatening the judge, is this a scene from the Shining/Deliverance? It appears that many in Ireland have no respect for laws and in my original example, it appears that the Irish justice system is a joke. Irish people have repeatedly demonstrated to me that they are incapable of governing themselves. This of course has been confirmed in recent years with the intervention of the IMF. One simply has to look at some of the clowns that they elect to their house of representatives (dail) as representative of themselves to understand why the IMF is now effectively managing their affairs. Intelligence and common sense are in short supply on that small island. I still love them, but god bless their innocence.

Report abuse

irishamerica46 | Nov 03, 2012, 03:34 PM EDT

Nine weeks!! Wow, if you're going to commit a crime, do it in Ireland.

Report abuse

thetint | Nov 03, 2012, 11:29 AM EDT

The reason for his downfall? His avaricious greed.

Report abuse

Portia777 | Nov 03, 2012, 09:58 AM EDT

We told you- make the Sidhe homeless and same happens to you. You thought we were joking. As we told you, we waited till you were big enough, then took it all back.

Report abuse