MEMBERS OF the Quinn family allegedly engaged in a “pattern of dispossession” in a bid to strip assets from an archipelago of companies to leave Anglo Irish Bank with provision over essentially worthless entities, it was claimed in court yesterday.
Proceedings for a High Court application for an interlocutory injunction preventing the Quinn family from transferring assets opened yesterday in court, after a bid to adjourn proceedings by lawyers for the Quinn family was turned down.
Senior counsel for the Quinn family Bill Shipsey had appealed for an adjournment until September to allow for a decision on whether the court has jurisdiction over the issue. He said his client had not had time to deal with a fourth affidavit submitted by Anglo executive Richard Woodhouse on behalf of the bank late on Sunday.
Mr Shipsey represents businessman Seán Quinn; his children Ciara, Colette, Seán jnr, Brenda and Aoife; his nephew Peter; and sons-in-law Stephen Kelly and Niall McPartland; as well as two companies, Quinn Investments Sweden AB and Indian Trust AB.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke ordered the hearing to open shortly before lunchtime yesterday after he decided to rule on the jurisdiction issue and the injunction together.
The judge said that, on balance, to proceed was the preferred option because of a range of delays that could arise from one or other side seeking an appeal on the jurisdiction issue. “It is not hard to envisage the complications that might arise,” he said.
Presenting the case for Anglo, Shane Murphy SC claimed that members of the Quinn family had engaged in wrongful conduct in taking steps to establish a corporate group representing a “mirror structure”. “The defendants are moving in a way designed to remove assets from the IPG [the archipelago of Quinn companies]. If that continues, the plaintiff would find itself effectively dealing with a skeleton,” he said.
Mr Murphy said the process amounted to a conspiracy because there was more than one person involved and he said there was an absence of clarity surrounding “a pattern of dispossession” connected to shares in the Quinn family’s property portfolio.
Mr Murphy introduced an affidavit from Aoife Quinn in which she asserts that loans from Anglo subsequently invested in various Quinn companies were unenforceable because they were intended to support an illegal purpose.
He is expected to continue to outline the case on behalf of Anglo today while Mr Shipsey will be given an opportunity to answer the claims tomorrow.
