A number of members of the hugely wealthy Getty family have procured Irish passports by way of making investments here in recent years. It is understood one of the main attractions of Irish citizenship for them is that it can be used to circumvent US taxes.
Two members of the family were granted passports in 1995. According to one source, three members of the Getty family were granted passports in 1999 in return for a £3 million (€3.8 million) investment in Punchestown. The investment, which was upped from an original proposed investment of £2 million, was made by way of a US company, GT Equinus Inc.
General approval to raise money in this way was given by the Punchestown members but they were not made aware of the details.
An agreement in March 1999 gave GT Equinus three million non-voting redeemable preference shares of £1 each. Last week, the High Court was told the agreement was negotiated principally by Mr James Osborne, the company chairman and a former partner with A&L Goodbody, on behalf of Punchestown, and by A&L Goodbody on behalf of Equinus.
One clause in the deal stated that Punchestown agreed that: "James Osborne, Dermot Cox, Mary Moore and David Cornwall remain directors of the company (Blackhall Racing Co Ltd) and that all, or some of them, together with the director appointed (by GT Equinus) represent a majority in number of the board of directors".
This clause is now being contested by Mr Nicholas Bullman and Mr John Ross, who have replaced Mr Osborne and Mr Cox on the Blackhall board.They argue the company had no right to enter into any such deal with Equinus and that it is therefore null and void.
Following the replacement of Mr Osborne and Mr Cox, GT Equinus wrote to the company saying it was now in default of the agreement and that it, GT Equinus, wanted to redeem its £3 million.
The trustees of the Kildare Hunt Club have said they wish to explain to members of the club the background to the Getty investment and the "provisions of the shareholders' agreement which have become understandably subject to criticism".
They have had discussions with representatives of the Gettys and have a proposal for resolving the current impasse. What these proposals are is not clear.
Mr Cox has been renominated to the Blackhall board by Horse Racing Ireland. The trustees have blamed the resistance of Mr Bullman and Mr Ross to Mr Osborne being returned to the board for the crisis with GT Equinus.
They have said "the conduct of Mr Ross and Mr Bullman since their election has resulted in an apparent loss of confidence by the GT Equinus nominee (Mr Edward Stadum) in their ability to conduct the affairs of the company".
The "passports for investment" scheme has been, in effect, abolished since April 1998. Since then 35 people have been naturalised, all but 12 of these being spouses and children of people already naturalised.
