Quinns ready for next scene in legal saga

Family want move to protect cash and property until action against IBRC decided

Group restructuresThey also claim the Quinn Group has been restructured in such a way as to prevent them recovering the assets should they win their action against the bank.

They say the assets include the IBIS Hotel in Prague, recently sold for €11.5 million, and want those and any other proceeds from the sale of assets ring-fenced.

Mr Wallace disputes the Quinns’ claims they are the beneficial owners of the assets and that IBRC has no valid claim to them. He also argues the assets have no real value as a result of third-party debts of the relevant companies to banks and bondholders.

• 1987: Quinn begins

The Quinns say the ring-fencing orders are necessary to ensure, should they win the main action, that they will recover cash and assets which they insist are rightfully theirs. They argue Mr Wallace is not entitled to dilute the value of the assets until the main case is heard and decided.

No full hearing is expected to open until well into 2014 at the earliest, while a final outcome could take a number of years.

If the Quinns succeed in the ring-fencing application, that will stymie IBRC’s hopes of selling off properties in several countries, while Mr Wallace, who previously confirmed IBRC is insolvent, may also have to lodge further monies into court on its behalf.

While IBRC continues to have the benefit of injunctions restraining several Quinn family members reducing their assets below €50 million after the High Court last month refused the family’s application to lift those orders, the court did require Mr Wallace to lodge €5 million in court by the end of August to meet claims should the Quinns ultimately defeat the conspiracy case.

Supreme Court appealMr Wallace previously said IBRC would ensure €50 million was “ring-fenced” in the liquidation to meet claims in the event of the Quinns succeeding in the main case.

Separately, submissions have to be filed by late October for IBRC’s Supreme Court appeal against the High Court’s refusal to prevent the Quinns pursuing their claims that €2.34 billion Anglo loans were made in breach of Market Abuse Regulations and Section 60 of the Companies Act, which prevents financial institutions lending to support their own shares. A date for that appeal has yet to be fixed.

Breach of injunctions

In summer 2012, Seán Quinn jnr was jailed for three months after a High Court judge found he, his father and his cousin Peter Darragh Quinn acted in breach of injunctions, restraining them stripping assets worth millions from the family’s international property group.

His father also served a period of weeks in jail over Christmas 2012. Seán jnr later agreed to sell his Dublin home in a bid to purge his contempt.

A warrant remains extant for the arrest of Peter Darragh Quinn to serve three months for contempt because he has stayed at his home in Northern Ireland.