Galway hotelier and developer Michael Finn and his wife Claire, who are being pursued by the National Asset Management Agency for €108 million, have invested €600,000 in companies operating a high-end car resale business and transferred shares in their family home to their children, the agency has claimed at the Commercial Court.
The agency is seeking a €108 million summary judgment orders against the couple who, it alleges, have failed to use funds available to them to reduce their liabilities to it.
Nama has appointed receivers to various companies controlled by Mr Finn who is associated with several developments in and around Galway, including the House Hotel and Spanish Arch Hotel.
After their AIB and Anglo liabilities were taken over by Nama in late 2010, the couple in 2011 invested the €600,000 proceeds from the sale of two unencumbered assets in two trading companies operating a “high-end” car resale business, the agency claims. That investment was made when it was clear to Nama the couple were insolvent, it is alleged.
Nama also alleges that the couple in 2010 transferred a one-sixth share in their family home at Oranmore to their daughter Joyce for €150,000, with her share held in trust by their son, Donnacha, until she was aged 18. They also gifted a similar one-sixth share to Donnacha in 2010, it is alleged.
Such matters were evidence of the couple’s lack of co-operation with Nama, the agency claims, and that they were unwilling to deliver up title deeds to property over which Nama held a first-ranked security or to apply rental monies from Nama-secured properties to pay down their debt.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly has agreed to fast-track the summary judgment case in the Commercial Court. It arises from loans by Allied Irish Banks and Anglo Irish Bank from 2008 and guarantees executed by them over loans to two companies, Rathcotton Investments and Deveronne Investments.
It is claimed the Finns’ aggregate liability to Nalm – National Asset Loan Management – a Nama company which took over the Anglo and AIB loans in late 2010, is some €108.5 million.
