Quinn Insurance in Administration

[sammymaguire]

From last week's Impartial Reporter

FORMER Fermanagh businessman Sean Quinn who was declared bankrupt in the Republic on Monday says IBRC, the new name for Anglo Irish Bank, want to "destroy" his name and leave him and his family with nothing.

Mr. Quinn's comments come as speculation mounts that his wife, Patricia and five children, Colette, Ciara, Aoife, Brenda and Sean Junior could be made bankrupt next, and that he will lose his Ballyconnell home.

In an exclusive interview with The Impartial Reporter this week, Mr. Quinn has:

• claimed he is heading into retirement "penniless".

• hit back at IBRC for what he describes as their "Sean Quinn hatred", accusing them of "ripping off the country" and "destroying" his former company.

• claimed that ever since he lost control of his multi-billion euro empire it is losing an estimated £40 million EVERY WEEK and has lost four billion in value since March 2010.

• described organisations now involved in his former business as "like vultures feeding off a carcass".

• declared his beloved Quinn Group "dead and gone".

The 65-year-old says IBRC, who he still refers to as Anglo, has informed him of their intention to try and recoup the €2.8 billion they say he owes them and he says they are after his home.

Speaking for the first time since being made bankrupt in the South earlier this week, Mr. Quinn described Monday's judgement as "devastating" for him, and said it was something that he had hoped would have been avoided.

"Because I haven't owned any companies or businesses since 2002, the assets that can be taken from me are minimal, however, I feel that the fact that I am now bankrupt has ruined my reputation which I built up over many years through a lot of hard work. I am now heading into retirement penniless, and I'm very sad that it has come to this," he said.

Mr. Quinn believes that the huge debts "will never be paid back" now that he is no longer in control of his global insurance, manufacturing and property businesses. He says he simply cannot pay them.

"Every opportunity that they (IBRC) get, they say, do you realise that Sean Quinn borrowed €2.8 billion? That is just not true. Anglo gave the Quinn companies €2.3 billion to support Anglo's own shares, because of their fear that their bank would collapse. I signed personal guarantees on all of Quinn Group borrowings, and that is how I became bankrupt. I no longer own or control any business, they have taken my tools from me, so I no longer have the means of paying back any money", he said.

He claims that by March 2012 IBRC will have taken four billion of wealth out of the Quinn Group of companies.

"The companies have lost four billion in value since 2010, they are losing €40 million a week now; that's the taxman who is losing that. People will say I am talking about hysterical figures but I wouldn't have forecasted this 12 months ago. I said two years ago that bringing in the administrator [to Quinn Direct] was one of the worst decisions in the history of the State. People laughed at that but I think they are laughing less at that today, and will laugh even less again in a year's time," he said.

Mr. Quinn accused IBRC of having a "personal vendetta" against him, a claim IBRC have denied this week.

"I can't get to the bottom of it; I don't understand why it makes such a difference to them where I am bankrupt, and I don't understand why they spent so much taxpayer's money needlessly. My statement of assets is exactly the same whether it's being read north or south of the Border. When Anglo talks about the process being cheaper in the south, it makes no sense to me. I have owned no assets since 2002, so their prospect of recouping anything, in any jurisdiction, is zero," he said.

The businessman, who is planning a tell-all book, says he is adamant that the "truth will come out" eventually.

"The story they (IBRC) have told is that if the regulator hadn't put an administrator into Quinn Direct it would have went into default. If they hadn't put a share receiver into Derrylin it would have gone into default. The facts are that Quinn Direct was never in default, it was solvent, it was a very profitable company, and it increased its cash by £215 million in the 15 months before it went into administration. Back early on when Quinn Direct went into administration a certain individual from RTE said 'Regulator one, Sean Quinn zero', I think that mindset says it all".

And he described the annulment of his bankruptcy in Northern Ireland last week as "fairly irrelevant", but admitted he was shocked by IBRC's move to reverse his bankruptcy in the first place."I went for bankruptcy in the north on the basis that I worked in Northern Ireland all of my life. I was born here and lived here for 32/33 years before moving to Ballyconnell. I worked every day, 300 days a year, in Derrylin so to me, that was my centre of main interest. It never even occurred to me that there might be any risk to that because the world and the crows knew that I always worked here and never anywhere else so it came as a shock when Anglo contested that".

He added: "As far as I'm concerned, it was a huge waste of taxpayer's money, but there's a lot of taxpayer's money being wasted in the Quinn companies. Between accountants, solicitors, actuaries, forensic and restructuring advisors, there are over 35 foreign companies giving their expert advice, and bleeding every penny from the company. They are like vultures feeding off a carcass. There are also some Irish companies doing very well out of the situation; the security and PR companies are getting enormous fees on a monthly basis, and it now appears to be a free for all. I find it ironic that these huge fees are being taken from Quinn companies to pay for a big PR campaign against me. It would be funny if it wasn't true", he added.

Mr. Quinn believes that the Irish Government, which he says has a 75 per cent stake in the Quinn Group, "don't know what's really going on".

"We had one and a quarter billion of borrowing in Derrylin and we paid interest on that every day. We never had a problem paying that. Now Anglo are having problems, rather than paying the interest on one and a quarter billion, they are only paying the interest on £475 million and nobody is kicking up; everyone seems happy with that. Do they realise that the interest is just rolling up on the rest, and increasing the debt? People think 'Oh, they (IBRC) are doing a fantastic job, they are saving jobs, and the company would have went bankrupt only for them'. And the public and the media are falling for it, and that just beats me. That's not my story, that's a fact.

"The guys that are now running the Quinn Group are getting £1,000 an hour. Some of the guys representing Anglo in Belfast two weeks ago were getting £4,000 an hour. I think that between 2010 and 2017, hundreds of millions will be spent on advisors to the Quinn group of companies. That's money from the Irish taxpayer, and nobody is saying anything about it," he said.

Before he lost control of his company, Mr. Quinn planned to expand. He says he had planning permission for a new plastics factory in Ballyconnell, planned an extension on the packaging plant, had planning permission to create an alternative waste programme on the cement factory, planned a new chemical plant in Germany, and was expanding Quinn Direct. He says the projects would have created 1,000 new jobs.

"I was always a business man. I enjoyed what I did and would do many of the same things again; though obviously I have learned a lot. The company atmosphere and the business meant everything to me. I was very proud of having such a diverse range of businesses. Some businesses are very isolated and stand very much on their own. The Quinn businesses were almost all inter-related and fairly dependent on one another, that made for a close knit group of employees and I believe a wonderful work environment.

"We had a job for everyone, no matter what your skill-set was; if you wanted to work in a hotel we had a job for you; if you wanted to work in financial services we had a job for you. if you wanted to work as an accountant, a secretary, or in the quarry, radiators or glass we had jobs for everybody; male, female, educated, uneducated. I think that's what made us successful. We built up a great rapport with the locals. That's all dead and gone now. Everybody I meet, whether they're a Quinn employee or not, talks of a change of atmosphere and a lack of trust in the community," he said.

The Derrylin man says he continues to be grateful for all the support he has received from local people in Fermanagh, Cavan and the surrounding area.

"I'd say there is more support for the Quinn family in the last two or three months than there has ever been and the reason for that is that I think it's beginning to dawn on people that there is something fundamentally wrong. We have had thousands of letters over Christmas. People are even more supportive now than they were a year and a half ago," he said.

Asked about his future potential endeavours, Mr. Quinn said he had no definite plans yet, but added: "Although Anglo have ensured that I can never create another job, or contribute to the country as a businessman, I can and will continue to contribute to my community as I have always done. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience which I want to put to the best possible use," he said.

[Orangemac]

Sean Quinn brought this all on himself. He wanted to take over Anglo and then when he could have taken a loss and walked away he chased his losses down. The risk taking that made him such a great entrepreneur was ultimately his downfall.Then when he was given a fine in 2008, he should have heeded the warning and got Quinn Direct in order before it was put in administration by the new regulator.

Having said that is sad to see such a great entrepreneur end up this way. If there had been any financial regulation in Ireland he would have been saved from himself.Sean Quinn has created more jobs in Ireland than the current government will during it's lifetime and surely some sort of deal could have been reached where most of the assets were handed over to Anglo and Sean Quinn could have been declared bankrupt in the North and been allowed to go back to creating jobs in a years time.

[whiskeysteve]

Sean Quinn brought this all on himself. He wanted to take over Anglo and then when he could have taken a loss and walked away he chased his losses down. The risk taking that made him such a great entrepreneur was ultimately his downfall.Then when he was given a fine in 2008, he should have heeded the warning and got Quinn Direct in order before it was put in administration by the new regulator.

Having said that is sad to see such a great entrepreneur end up this way. If there had been any financial regulation in Ireland he would have been saved from himself.Sean Quinn has created more jobs in Ireland than the current government will during it's lifetime and surely some sort of deal could have been reached where most of the assets were handed over to Anglo and Sean Quinn could have been declared bankrupt in the North and been allowed to go back to creating jobs in a years time.

+1

The hubris and glee at Anglo getting their pound of flesh in the dublin media and their cheerleaders is depressing. This is a good feed for the Parasite sector which is unrivalled outside of the pale.

[supersarsfields]

Cases being heard today on whether the Children and wife have a right to challange the Anglo loans.

<sub>ANGLO Irish Bank unlawfully tried to prop up its share price by "shovelling" about €2.34bn of loans into companies in the Sean Quinn group, a court heard yesterday.

This was after it had learned in September 2007 of a "towering" Quinn shareholding in Anglo which could collapse the bank, a lawyer for Sean Quinn's wife and children alleged.

Brian O'Moore SC said Anglo's then CEO David Drumm was told by Sean Quinn Snr in December 2007 that a €400m loan was needed to pay off the companies' loans -- in order to avoid having to disclose the extent of the shareholding in Anglo -- and that Mr Drumm then said the bank would provide €500m "to tidy up matters".

The claims were made on the opening day of a hearing before the Commercial Court of a preliminary issue in an action by the family to avoid liability for the loans to Anglo.

Mr O'Moore said the bank sought to have the loans disguised as property and other loans but knew they were to fund margin calls on "contracts for difference (CfD) positions" taken out in Anglo by Sean Quinn Snr via Madeira-registered company Bazzely. This was to avoid the 24pc Quinn shareholding being made public knowledge, counsel said.

The bank engaged in "very serious illegal activity" on a "persistent, ongoing basis" involving an "egregious" and "almost deliberate" breach of laws carrying penalties of €10m and/or a maximum 10-year jail sentence, counsel said.

Anglo was not entitled to recover €2.34bn from Patricia Quinn or her children, who owned but did not manage Bazzely, under various guarantees and share pledges provided by them over loans tainted with illegality, said counsel.

"Illegality was central to this -- there would have been no loans without a desire to manipulate the market," he said.

Loans

The bank, for example, provided about €300m over three days around St Patrick's Day in March 2008 to meet margin calls when its share price plummeted, counsel said.

Reflecting on the bank's "wild willingness" to do this, the knowledge of the purpose of those loans was "striking", argued Mr O'Moore, adding: "No one in the bank seems to have stood back and asked, why are we shovelling all this money into our own shareholding?'"

"Systems" were put in place to ensure that the 24pc stake in Anglo held by the Quinns did not become public knowledge, Mr O'Moore said.

Up to September 2007, about €750m of the Quinn group's own monies were put into building up the stake.

But after March 2008, as Anglo's share price continued to fall, the bank shovelled €2.34bn of its money in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to prop up the Anglo Irish Bank share price and avert "catastrophic" consequences.

Certain Anglo personnel, said counsel, would be told by Quinn group personnel what funds were required and the money would be advanced.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton rejected a last-minute attempt by the Quinn family to use a previously unknown expert report as part of their bid to be allowed to challenge the legality of more than €2bn of loans advanced by Anglo.

The family's lawyer claimed that the report showed that the 28pc stake built up by the Quinns was "towering and dominant" on Anglo's share register and proved that the bank would have been "acutely concerned" about how it was to be "unravelled".

The argument goes to the heart of the family's contention that the €2bn was loaned illegally for the sole purpose of propping up the bank's own share price by preventing the forced sale of the stake -- something they say would breach laws on market manipulation and other legislation.

The judge said that he didn't have "any doubts" in refusing to allow discussion of the report to proceed because yesterday's court session was not a full-on hearing.</sub>

[muppet]

Quinn hasn't a prayer of winning this.

His case seems to be: I told them they better give me money or their share price collapses. They did. But they shouldn't have done it as it protected the share price. Therefore I owe nothing.

But he may pull the lot down with him. That might not be a bad thing at all.

*Orders more popcorn*

[Rossfan]

Do the "broke" and bankrupt Quinns get legal aid for all these Court cases?
If Quinn and all the other fcukers who destroyed this country used the money they obviously have to pay some of their debts instead of giving it to legal bigwigs in a series of never ending Court cases.........

[supersarsfields]

But it's not SQ running the claims. It's the kids and Patricia. It was their assets that SQ and Anglo used. They are claiming to have had no input into the guarantees and that it was organised by SQ and Anglo to their detriment. I agree that if it was SQ running it, it wouldn't stand a chance.

Course it means if they win it'll drop SQ into more trouble.

Do the "broke" and bankrupt Quinns get legal aid for all these Court cases?
If Quinn and all the other fcukers who destroyed this country used the money they obviously have to pay some of their debts instead of giving it to legal bigwigs in a series of never ending Court cases.........

The Quinns aren't bankrupt (yet). Only SQ is.

[muppet]

But it's not SQ running the claims. It's the kids and Patricia. It was their assets that SQ and Anglo used. They are claiming to have had no input into the guarantees and that it was organised by SQ and Anglo to their detriment. I agree that if it was SQ running it, it wouldn't stand a chance.

Course it means if they win it'll drop SQ into more trouble.

Do the "broke" and bankrupt Quinns get legal aid for all these Court cases?
If Quinn and all the other fcukers who destroyed this country used the money they obviously have to pay some of their debts instead of giving it to legal bigwigs in a series of never ending Court cases.........

The Quinns aren't bankrupt (yet). Only SQ is.

Given that the lawyers and investigators are inexplicably spending their time, and taxpayer's money, reading websites such as this, I will refrain from saying any more.

[supersarsfields]

No worries.

At this stage I think it's just to see if they have a case at all. So it won't be going in-depth at this stage. But I would be surprised considering the goings on in Anglo if they didn't allow a full investigation into it.

[supersarsfields]

This makes interesting Reading.

UK report concludes that bank's conduct was not 'market practice'

AN expert report that the Quinn family unsuccessfully tried to use in their legal action against the former Anglo Irish Bank concluded that the €2.3bn it lent to Sean Quinn artificially maintained its share price.
The Quinn family commissioned the report from UK firm Navigant Consulting as part of its legal action against the bank. Hugo Watson Brown, a director, concluded that Anglo's conduct was "not accepted market practice" and said that no bank other than Anglo would have lent the former tycoon so much money.
A leaked copy of the report suggests that if the former tycoon didn't get the loans, and had to sell his secret stake in the bank, Anglo's share price would have fallen by 67 per cent.
The report supports the Quinns' arguments in their dispute with Anglo as outlined in their statements of claim. Sean Quinn, once Ireland's richest man, is now bankrupt, his empire is in receivership, and his wife, Patricia, and their five children are being pursed for overseas assets worth €500m.
The Quinns claim the loans were illegal in the first place, and are therefore not enforceable. However, Anglo dismisses their claims, arguing that the family members signed personal guarantees for the loans and has accused them of conspiracy to put their assets out of reach.
The London-based consultancy was asked to examine the central plank of the Quinns' case against the bank: that loans to Quinn family companies were made for an illegal purpose and constituted market manipulation. But the family failed to have the report introduced as evidence in their legal action which opened in the Commercial Court with a preliminary hearing on legal issues.
The consultants' report draws on the Quinns' account of how the businessman built up his secret stake in Anglo Irish Bank through contracts for difference (CFDs); how Sean FitzPatrick, the bank's chairman and David Drumm, its chief executive, met with Mr Quinn, when he revealed for the first time that he had a 24 per cent stake in the bank through CFDs.
Mr Quinn was banking on Anglo's share price rising. When it started falling during the financial crash of 2007, Mr Quinn had to pay the brokers' margin calls. If he didn't, his CFDs would have flooded the market, triggering a further decline in Anglo's share price.
Mr Watson Brown noted that "by June 2008, Anglo had lent Quinn Finance or related companies close to €2bn and to the extent that (if) it was secured at all, it was done so against property development projects that had not had the benefit of funds".
Mr Watson Brown said there was "no commercial rationale" behind Anglo's loans to the Quinn companies. He didn't believe that "any bank, other than Anglo" would have loaned money to the Quinn companies to cover losses on Mr Quinn's CFD stake. He calculated that if the Quinns' stake had been sold "under distressed circumstances", Anglo's share price would have fallen by 67 per cent.
Mr Watson Brown concluded that Anglo's loans to the Quinn family companies were "made with the express intention of ensuring that the CFD positions were maintained". He said it followed that the loans "directly maintained" the positions on the bank's shares that otherwise would have been sold.
During last week's court hearing, Anglo's counsel said it was the family's own case that it was Sean Quinn who had engaged in the market manipulation, he was responsible for the investment strategy and had not discussed his decisions with his family.
- MAEVE SHEEHAN
 

[orangeman]

Is this the report that the judge refused to allow to be produced at last week's hearing ??

[supersarsfields]

Yeah. Judge's view was that this isn't an indepth look at the merits of the claim. But just to decide whether there actually is a case or not.
Seems a strange decision to refuse it And raised more than a few eyebrows but maybe it is too detailed for this stage.

[orangeman]

Yeah. Judge's view was that this isn't an indepth look at the merits of the claim. But just to decide whether there actually is a case or not.
Seems a strange decision to refuse it And raised more than a few eyebrows but maybe it is too detailed for this stage.

This leak will make sure that it is included if there is a full review of Anglo behaviour / misbehaviour.

[muppet]

Is this the report that the judge refused to allow to be produced at last week's hearing ??

The Quinn family commissioned the report from UK firm Navigant Consulting

Can I presume they will now press charges against Sean Quinn on the basis of the same report?

[supersarsfields]

I would say that will more than likely follow alright if the judge allows the cases to go forward.