A COURT in Cyprus has lifted an injunction granted to the family of businessman Seán Quinn, which had been in place since June 2011, and that prevented the former Anglo Irish Bank from taking certain actions against property assets.
The Cypriot District Court of Nicosia set aside the injunction granted on an ex partebasis, meaning that the bank was not represented in the case, and dismissed the legal action.
The injunction prevented the share receiver appointed by the bank to the Quinns’ Swedish company behind their international properties from taking actions against its Cypriot subsidiaries.
The Swedish firm owns Cypriot companies which, in turn, own companies in Moscow that hold the Quinns’ properties in Russia.
Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly Anglo, said it would seek to recover the costs incurred in relation to the Cypriot injunction and related matters.
“As a nationalised financial institution, IBRC is determined to recoup its costs and to minimise the expense of this matter to the taxpayer and the State,” the bank said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Quinn family said they had no comment to make on the Cypriot ruling.
There are more than 20 properties, worth about €500 million, in the family’s international portfolio held in about 87 corporate entities spanning 12 countries.
Legal actions between the Quinns and the bank over the properties have extended from the Republic to Northern Ireland, Sweden, Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Belize and the British Virgin Islands.
The bank appointed a share receiver to the main company behind the international property group in April 2011 at the same time as it seized ownership of the Fermanagh-based Quinn Group.
Anglo claimed in the Cypriot court proceedings last year that Mr Quinn’s wife and five children had used the court injunction as cover for “unlawful and hidden actions” to put assets beyond the reach of the bank, which is owed €2.88 billion by the family.
The Quinn side rejected the claims as “scandalous”, “irrelevant”, “vexatious” and “frivolous” and has taken legal action in the Irish courts challenging the legality of €2.34 billion of the debt.
SURPRISE IN BELFAST COURT
CLAIM THAT QUINN FIRM VICTIM OF DISPUTED DEALS
A FIRM which was run by the family of Seán Quinn has been a victim of disputed multimillion-pound loan deals, the High Court in Belfast has heard.
In an unexpected move, IBRC is to seek to have Demesne Investments Ltd switched from defendant to joint-plaintiff in its battle for control of an international property empire.
A judge has requested more details before he hears the application next week. Demesne, a Fermanagh-based firm which came under the receiver’s control last year, was one of four companies facing proceedings brought by the bank.
The others are the British Virgin Islands-registered Lyndhurst Development Trading, Galfis Overseas in Belize, and another Northern Ireland-based company, Innishmore Consultancy.
IBRC wants to seize a Ukrainian shopping centre once owned by the Quinn family as part of its overall bid to recover more than £2 billion. A two-day hearing has been set for later this month to resolve a disputed arrangement for enforcing a debt over the mall in Kiev.
