PREVIOUSLY UNDISCLOSED transfers of a $45 million debt associated with a Kiev shopping centre once owned by bankrupt billionaire Seán Quinn point to a “serious misuse” of High Court processes, a judge has said.

In the High Court in Belfast yesterday, Mr Justice Bernard McCloskey refused a bid by British Virgin Islands-registered company Lyndhurst Developments to appeal his earlier ruling, which had returned control of the loan to the former Anglo Irish Bank, declaring that the firm seemed to have had no interest for the last nine months.

Further assignments of the debt from Lyndhurst to Ukrainian companies Zenith and Elegant Invest appear to have taken place in that period, the court heard.

Lawyers for the rebranded Irish Bank Resolution Corporation argued that the transfers amounted to further attempts to place the multi-million pound asset beyond its reach.

They also claimed that the Northern Ireland High Court may have been seriously misled if the assignment took place last December.

Proceedings took place this year on the assumption Lyndhurst still held the rights to the debt owed by the shopping mall’s owners, Univermag.

Mr Justice McCloskey pointed out that the new evidence was not available when he delivered his earlier judgment in May. He repeated his finding that those responsible for the loan assignment were taking part in “an orchestrated, elaborate and illicit charade”.

The judge said: “With each passing phase of this litigation, the correctness of this finding is vindicated and fortified.” He added: “There is clear prima facie evidence that Lyndhurst has had no interest in the Univermag debt since December 2011. This renders the appeal moot.”

Permission for Lyndhurst to appeal his earlier ruling was refused on the basis any challenge would have no realistic prospect of success.

Mr Justice McCloskey further said: “Independent of my primary conclusion, there is clear prima facie evidence that the process of this court has been seriously misused by Lyndhurst.”

The verdict is the latest stage in a protracted legal battle over wider allegations by the bank that assets were stripped to prevent it from securing £2 billion it claims to be owed by the Quinn family.

A chain of loan assignments were under scrutiny in the case.

Fermanagh-based firm Demesne Investments, of which Mr Quinn is a former director, had been owed $45 million by Univermag.

However in April 2011, Demesne transferred its rights to the debt to Innishmore Consultancy, another Northern Ireland company run by Mr Quinn’s nephew Peter Quinn.

From there the loan was transferred on to Lyndhurst last October.

Now, however, it has emerged that two further assignments allegedly took place.

* The former director of corporate enforcement, Paul Appleby, has told the Fianna Fáil spokesman on finance, Michael McGrath, that there is no criminal offence under company law concerning reckless trading.

Responding to a letter from Mr McGrath regarding events at Quinn Insurance Ltd, he said officers of a company could be made personally liable for the debts of a limited liability company if it could be shown that they had knowingly been party to reckless trading.

Applications to the courts in such a regard could be made by receivers, liquidators, examiners and creditors in cases where a company was in examinership or being wound up, he added.

The letter was sent to Mr McGrath in August but its contents were disclosed yesterday.