Billionaire-turned-bankrupt Sean Quinn, his son Sean and nephew Peter Darragh have all been found in contempt of court for putting assets beyond the reach of the former Anglo-Irish Bank.
The former business tycoon, once Ireland’s richest man, and his two relations were found to have defied an order at the High Court in Dublin over the family’s international property portfolio.
The lawsuit, brought by the state-owned bank which was rebranded last year to become the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, claimed they shifted assets from as far afield as Ukraine and Russia into new ownership as it pursued 2.8 billion (£2.2 billion) in debts. The contempt ruling was delivered by Mrs Justice Elizabeth Dunne at the Four Courts in Dublin.
The contempt lawsuit is one of a series of cases across several jurisdictions as the zombie bank tries to recover a 500 million international property portfolio to cover unprecedented debts run up by Quinn in secret and ill-fated share deals in Anglo. Potential punishment ranges from fines and seizure of property to a jail sentence.
In a hard-hitting judgment criticising the Quinns, Mrs Justice Dunne ruled that Sean Quinn’s evidence was not credible. She said it was “impossible to accept the evidence of Sean Quinn Senior that he had no hand, act or part in Quinn business after April 2011”.
