Quinn Insurance in Administration

[fearbrags]

Ihttps://www.reddit.com/r/teilifis/comments/z7rva6/quinn_country_episode_1_rte_one_monday_28th/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[Baile Brigín 2]

Alan Dukes shafted him. He showed his true colours in the documentary. He never should have been allowed anywhere near NAMA

I've no idea what Alan Duke's background is outside of politics, but I'm assuming he did not have any business know-how anywhere near the same as Sean Quinn, not many had.  Quinn's point on the doc was interesting i.e. give me a few years and I'd have made it all back and paid any debts that were owed ... no idea why that was not given more consideration at the time.

Dukes on an.economist.

Quinn didn't have 'business lnow how'. That is the problem.

On what planet was he going to be allowed continue gamble other peoples money chasing a mental poaition based soely on his gut?

[quit yo jibbajabba]

See Sean has a book out.

Also decided to do an interview with journalist. Safe to say it didn't go well lol
Independent or Bel Tel I believe

[Jim Bob]

'You're just talking s***': Breathtaking rudeness of Seán Quinn


The former billionaire's new book tells his side of events at his former firms. He wanted to talk, but not to journalist Maeve Sheehan. Even so, he relented, invited her into his lakeside home — then told her what he thought about her
After multiple interviews, an RTÉ documentary called Quinn Country, plus a follow-up book by Trevor Birney, the documentary's director, Seán Quinn has published the story he says the media refused to publish: Seán Quinn, In My Own Words.
With a book to promote, his publisher contacted the Sunday Independent offering the first interview with the former billionaire from Derrylin, Co Fermanagh.
Editor Alan English assigned the interview to this reporter. I have covered the Quinn story often, but word came back that Quinn believed previous articles I had written "had a negative tone". There was a suggestion that sending a different journalist "would create a more comfortable atmosphere for the interview".
The editor declined to swap me for someone else, on the principle that authors promoting books ought not to have a veto over the interviewer.
I did not expect Seán Quinn to change his mind — a decision he had clearly regretted by the time we arrived at the gates of his mansion in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, on Thursday morning.
He emerged from a side door, smiling and extending a hand to the journalist and the photographer standing in his courtyard by a glistening lake in the blinding sun.
But his words quickly belied his actions.
When I acknowledged that he would have preferred another journalist there, he replied with gusto. I had written "lies" about him for 10 years, the Sunday Independent should not have sent me, and I shouldn't be there. He expected us to be gone in 10 minutes.
And we hadn't even crossed the threshold.
With that unhappy opener, we went inside, hoping the mood would soften. And at times it did, in between him twice calling the interview to a halt, showering me with insults and having a set-to with photo- grapher Mark Condren — a veteran of conflict zones who, as he says himself, "takes no shit".
"The temperature is a little high," Quinn joked at the outset, as he settled into his chair at the head of the kitchen table. He wasn't talking about the mercury hitting 27 degrees.
His new book seemed the safest place to begin. He wrote it because "the media wouldn't tell my story, so I had to tell it myself".
The Quinn Country documentary broadcast by RTÉ last year, and the biography Quinn by documentary director Trevor Birney, were both "pure shite" and "unbelievable stuff" he said. Nevertheless, he liberally quotes from Birney's book in his own memoir, while RTÉ said the landmark documentary series was fair to everyone, including Quinn.
Getting his own account out there, helped by a sister and a daughter, has been a "relief".
"Yeah, I feel relaxed with the book. Yeah. I feel actually it's done and it's another... probably one of the faint chapters in my life. So I'm glad it's over and done and I'm pleased with it," he said.
Writing it every day made him realise "what had been done to me and what they'd taken from me. And when you start putting it [together], bit by bit, every day, every day, every day, you just say to yourself, 'Holy f**k'".
​
The story of self-made billionaire Quinn has never been more comprehensively told. He is the man who turned a sand and gravel pit into a global empire operating from the neglected Border counties; the man who gambled on Anglo Irish Bank shares and lost, triggering events that led to Quinn and his family being ousted from his empire in 2011.
His first-person account includes details of his humble childhood, a loving chapter on his wife and children, snippets about his admiration for people such as Adi Roche and Peter McVerry, his encounters with Dermot Desmond, the "honourable" financier who called Quinn "the man they couldn't hang", the "charming" former US president Barack Obama.
Much of the book charts his account of how Anglo Irish Bank, the regulators and the State worked to have the Quinns removed from their businesses.
Quinn writes that the "stage was set" for his destruction after he disclosed to Anglo Irish Bank bosses in 2007 that he controlled 25pc of the bank's shareholding through contracts for difference (CFDs) as the bank's share price tumbled. To stop him selling, flooding the market and destabilising the bank, Anglo lent him the money to pay the margin calls.
"If they had not injected the money illegally into their own shares, we would have had no option but to sell the CFDs," he writes. And Anglo was "determined" not to let him sell, and wanted the Quinns out of the group to stop them suing over "illegal loans".
He is scathing about his former management team who now run his old businesses and who, he says, hung him out to dry.
His "biggest misjudgments" were appointing Liam McCaffrey CEO and Dara O'Reilly financial director to the Quinn Group. Among other things, he accuses McCaffrey of taking €500,000 from a Quinn Group company to cover his own losses in CFDs. (One source said he legitimately borrowed €50,000 and paid it back in full.)
He sets out the regulatory breaches at Quinn Insurance — which in 2019 led to a Central Bank inquiry and ultimate settlement with McCaffrey and Kevin Lunney (another of his former executives). The Central Bank discontinued its investigation into Quinn and called him as a witness.
He writes that Kevin Lunney's abduction "insulated" the directors from unfavourable comment, saying: "They were the darlings of the media, and boy, did they milk it."
Sitting at his kitchen table, Quinn was happy to talk about the transactions and betrayals on the road to his downfall. But he seemed less happy being questioned on it.
When I asked if he continued to invest in CFDs after disclosing his bombshell to Anglo, he asked me to stop "cross-examining" him about his account.
"Everything in the book is accurate," he said.
Asked if he is a person who blames others, he said: "I am not big into the blame game. No, I don't believe in it. I believe that people of character do not try to put blame on to somebody else."
For his part, Quinn said he accepts blame for investing in Anglo CFDs and "that's it".
The conversation stuttered on before landing on another unexpected trigger. His memoir refers to the hurt he feels every day at the "power" he gave his former executives.
I asked him to describe the hurt he felt, if he could sleep at night, if it consumed him?
He replied: "I'm not going into it any more. In fact, I think I'll stop the interview, because I was trying to be sociable. I have written the book. You have been very uncomplimentary to me for 10 years. I've forgiven all that. And I've tried to work with you, and you are just going on and on and on."
He didn't stop. He just continued to berate me, accusing me of "belitt- ling" him during our last interview (in November 2021) and asking why I hadn't published criminal allegations made against him by John McCartin, a former Fine Gael councillor who is a director of Mannok, along with Lunney, McCaffrey and O'Reilly
At a loss, I eventually asked him what he wanted me to ask him about.
He didn't want me to ask him anything at all, because I was not the "appropriate person" to interview him about the book.
"I made that clear. They insisted on doing it. So I can't see how you could come along and ask me questions."
He was only warming up.
"Most people, most people including my own family say, 'What in the name of God are you letting that bitch into this house for?'
"I said, 'Look, I'll talk to her. I respect everybody and she's a proud, respectable woman in a lot of ways. But she has done me a lot of damage and she doesn't understand what happened'."
His rudeness was breathtaking, like a car crash unfolding.
The mood darkened further when I asked a question about the Anglo deal that converted Quinn's CFDs to shares that were bought in the name of his wife and five children. The transaction was insisted upon by the bank. Quinn says it was implemented without "any meeting or discussion" with his family.
He had gone to London, where he got legal advice that the action was "totally illegal", he said.
I asked if he told his children then what was happening? Did they know what was happening, what was being done in their name?
"I'm going to stop this interview because you're just talking shit now. You read the f**king book and now you're talking shit to me. So, there's no point in going any further," he said.
He was now angry.
"You shouldn't be here, because you're a critic of mine. You're not a balanced person."
He called "an end to the discussion" and rose to his feet.
Photographer Condren had yet to take a picture. Quinn gave him "three minutes" to take one outside.
"Let me set it up then," said Mark.
"You going to mess me about again?" said Quinn.
"No, I'm setting up a light, Seán."
"You had the f**king last hour to set it up."
After a bit of back and forth, Condren tried to reason with him.
"Listen, Seán, listen. I'm a photographer. I have nothing to do with this, right? I'm a simple photographer. OK? Trying to do a photograph, trying to do my job, right? So, if you have a problem with that, I've no problem leaving."
"All right. Leave," said Quinn.
Condren challenged him again, and Quinn now deflected his behaviour on to me.
"Do you not feel there is an aggressor here?" Quinn asked Condren.
"Who is the aggressor, Seán?" I asked.
"You."
"Do you feel I have been aggressive in my questioning?"
"Yes. Yes. Yes."
Quinn eventually agreed to the photo. "Well, if you do it quick."
Condren said later that when they went outside, he told Quinn he didn't care who he was, he wasn't going to take that behaviour from anyone. He said Quinn apologised and shook his hand.
Quinn later referred to their contretemps as a "test".
He resumed his insults when he came back inside. I invited him to read from the written statement in his notebook. With minimal encouragement, he sat back down at his kitchen table and began to read.
"I believe the appointment of the administrator to Quinn Insurance was wrong. I believe the appointment of a share receiver [to the Quinn Group] was illegal because it was based on illegal loans," he read.
"And I believe that the deal that was hatched between the management in Quinn in 2014 and the bondholders was also illegal. And the fact that there has been tens of millions of pounds of reported fraud since then that hasn't been investigated by the gardai, I feel that is totally wrong.
"I believe that Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan knew that the loans were illegal, and they knew they couldn't put in the share receiver and they had to wait. They were a barrister and a solicitor [by profession]. And it had to wait for two teachers, [Enda] Kenny and [Michael] Noonan, that they put in the share receiver."
He said Leo Varadkar was "best friends with John McCartin... and had slept in his house and attended a meeting in the packaging factory".
​
There is nothing to be gained from reporting on the many other slights and put-downs that poured out of Quinn's mouth over the two hours of interview. There is no pleasure in reporting any of it.
His behaviour came to dominate the interview to the extent that not to report on it would be an unfair reflection of what happened.
In fairness to him, and as he made abundantly clear, he believes I have written unfair and untrue things about him, and he did not want me there in the first place.
In fairness to me, I was assigned to the job and was happy to do it. I have written sympathetically about Kevin Lunney and his colleagues following his abduction and torture. The journalism Quinn complained bitterly about is on record. He never did specify what "lies" I told.
At the outset, I suggested to Quinn that we take a different approach.
"Like?" he asked.
"No antagonism," I said.
And there were periods when he spoke to me without hostility, mostly about his family, his grandchildren and the people who have supported him in his community, his many achievements.
His family are glad he has written the book, he said. They "know that everything in the book is true, they know that I'm right to tell the people that are supportive of me the truth — which they haven't got from you, or the media, or the courts".
Quinn said he was happier last week than he had been at any time over the last 10 years, now he has told the story he says the media wouldn't tell. He didn't write it for "people like me", he said ("It's just beyond belief the sort of individual you are," he added). It's for his supporters, so they can know they were on the right side all along.
"I would like the people in this area to know that I'm not a cheat, I'm not a gangster, I'm not a fraudster. I never stole anything that didn't belong to me. I want people to understand that and know that," he said.
He does not agree that tensions have eased. He said the "level of hatred" is so high that "those individuals can only go into certain shops in certain places", he added.
He met Tony Lunney, Kevin's brother, on the morning of the interview.
"There was no salute."
He was once very fond of both, but believes forgiveness is not on him.
"I'll take a lead from Fr O'Reilly. So whenever he moves, I move," he said, referring to the priest who condemned the unnamed "paymaster" behind the attack on Kevin Lunney.
Quinn is launching the book with his family on Thursday in the Slieve Russell, the hotel he built next door that he hopes will return to Quinn ownership. He has not set foot in the hotel for eight or nine years, but chose it because it is a "Quinn venue".
The fraught interview ended amiably enough. Quinn got to his feet. He extended his hand, and I shook it. I told him then that the repeated personal insults he threw at me were offensive and rude. He looked at me, but he didn't say anything.
I had already turned away when his hand shot out for the second time. I took it, I suppose instinctively, thinking it might be a conciliatory gesture.
"What's this for?" I asked.
His response made no sense to me. "I forgot the first time," he said, with a laugh.
​
'Seán Quinn: In My Own Words' is published by Red Stripe Press and is out now

[quit yo jibbajabba]

Nice one Jim Bob

[screenexile]

Such a sound fella Sean why do so many dislike him?? 🤔

[Itchy]

I don't know the ins and outs of the history between Quinn and interviewer but she does work for the Sunday Indo so good chance he is right.

[gallsman]

A truly horrible bastard.

[seafoid]

I didn't know this :

"To stop him selling, flooding the market and destabilising the bank, Anglo lent him the money to pay the margin calls"

[TabClear]

I didn't know this :

"To stop him selling, flooding the market and destabilising the bank, Anglo lent him the money to pay the margin calls"

I think thats been the argument, that Anglo took actions to prop up the price and that without this when the share price went against him initially he would have closed out the CFDs, taken the hit of a few hundred million    and moved on. The issue was that transactions involving this volume of shares would have negatively impacted the share price further which is why Anglo bosses took steps to avoid this happening. By staying in longer the scale of his losses grew exponetially as the share price fell further.

Above all caveated by its my hazy memory of the news reports, could be completely wrong. In any case,  I assume that if Quinn Group had decided to take the hit, either before Anglo got involved or by telling them that it was not interested in the plan they pulled together they could have done so. It would have been catastrophic for Anglo and a massive financial hit for QG to close out the CFDs but the Group would have survived. They chose to go along with the Anglo plan and the most likely assumption is that this was to try to reduce Group losses. The legality actions of Anglo/Receivers etc after this I think is a separate conversation.

[trailer]

I didn't know this :

"To stop him selling, flooding the market and destabilising the bank, Anglo lent him the money to pay the margin calls"

This was the crux of his argument. But he was told to stop buying CFDs but continued to do so.
Sean Quinn thought he was God, he could do no wrong and for manys a year that was true, but then he was faced with the reality that he wasn't God.

[LeoMc]

I didn't know this :

"To stop him selling, flooding the market and destabilising the bank, Anglo lent him the money to pay the margin calls"

This was the crux of his argument. But he was told to stop buying CFDs but continued to do so.
Sean Quinn thought he was God, he could do no wrong and for manys a year that was true, but then he was faced with the reality that he wasn't God.

There is an element of giving the Gambler more credit to try to recoup his losses about this.

Neither the gambler nor the casino come out of it too well.

[Pub Bore]

He bet the farm on a horse, was given the chance to cash out halfway through the race, didn't do so, fell 4 out from home and he's now blaming the horse, jockey, trainer, stable lad, the bookies, journalists, the local priest, the fella standing beside him at course and anyone else he can think of...apart from the obvious.  Deeply unpleasant individual.

[marty34]

If he didn't like the journalist, why did he agree to meet her?

He could have called it off at the last minute.

And why did he go to the Indo anyway, if they wrote lies about his, as he says? Why not just go to a rival newspaper?

All a bit strange.

[johnnycool]

I didn't know this :

"To stop him selling, flooding the market and destabilising the bank, Anglo lent him the money to pay the margin calls"

This was the crux of his argument. But he was told to stop buying CFDs but continued to do so.
Sean Quinn thought he was God, he could do no wrong and for manys a year that was true, but then he was faced with the reality that he wasn't God.

There is an element of giving the Gambler more credit to try to recoup his losses about this.

Neither the gambler nor the casino come out of it too well.

The tax payer bailed both out though.