Quinn Insurance in Administration

[orangeman]

Depends the 3 months is up on the 19thth so may get out then. Or as it's undefined Judge Dunne may decide to impose an additional time frame.

How long can they can keep him inside ?

[supersarsfields]

Not sure OM. It's a civil offence and not criminal so I'd imagine they'll be limited in what they can impose, but don't honestly know what that is.

[Mentalman]

He's inside until they purge their contempt, i.e. satisfy the trial judge that they are being upfront and honest in their dealings with with the court. In effect that's indefinite, which is highly highly peculiar, I don't think contempt of court has been used like this previously, well at least not in my time. I'm not surprised the Quinn's challenged it, as it is highly unusual, but the legal grounds of the challenge, other than it being contrary to natural justice, must be pretty shaky.

[sammymaguire]

Does Target Express have any major ties with the Quinn Group / people associated with Quinn?

Something stinks about this too...

please elaborate saamy
the irc put target under by freezing their accounts because they hadnt paid the tranche on time
cant see how quinn was involved in this

Just speculation. Ton of bricks job on a going concern when there could have and maybe should have been other ways of saving a good company with a strong workforce both sides of the border.

[orangeman]

Is it known what is contained in the books of evidenct that were handed to the 3 boys yesterday in court ?.


FROM RTE website -

Former chairman and chief executive Seán FitzPatrick, 64, former finance director Willie McAteer, 61, and the bank's former managing director in Ireland Patrick Whelan, 50, appeared in court.

They have been charged with unlawfully helping a group of investors, including six members of the Quinn family, to buy shares in Anglo Irish Bank in 2008.

Mr FitzPatrick, of Camaderry, Whitshed Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow, Mr McAteer from Auburn Villas, Rathgar, Dublin, and Mr Whelan with an address at Rachra, Coast Road, Malahide, were presented with the documents outlining the State's case against them.

They are each charged with 16 offences under Section 60 of the Companies Act, accused of permitting Anglo Irish Bank to give financial assistance to Patricia Quinn, her five children and ten senior clients of the bank, who became known as the Maple Ten, to enable them to buy shares in the bank.

Three detectives from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, who had charged the three earlier this year, signed declarations this morning stating that the documents had been served.

[supersarsfields]

Not sure OM.

Primetime tomorrow night is on SQ, but I'd say it'll prob go very little into Anglo's dealings. That seems to have taken a back seat.

[tommysmith]

Below is part of the statment the GAA made on the last Quinn Rally.

Cavan County Board dont seem to have got the message as they were announcing the next Quinn Rally at the County finals on Sunday.

GAA distances itself from Quinn rally

The GAA today said that its members are entitled to take positions in a personal capacity, but the GAA as a body would not become involved in the matter.

"The GAA is a non-party political organisation whose individual members may, of course, decide to take positions on a range of issues in accordance with their own personal views," said the GAA statement.

"As an Association, however, it would be entirely inappropriate for the GAA to become involved in matters outside its remit."

[supersarsfields]

Not really

<sup>However, in a surprise move, the GAA last night gave its blessing to the Fermanagh County Board for allowing GAA facilities to be used.


A spokesman at Croke Park said the announcement was "non-party political" and therefore not a breach of any GAA rules.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/gaa-backs-promotion-of-rally-for-quinns-16218162.html#ixzz28obbYyri</sup>

[orangeman]

Lawyers for IBRC have told the Supreme Court they have 30 strands of circumstantial evidence to back their claim that Sean Quinn Junior breached a court order by facilitating a half a million dollar payment to a Ukranian employee.

Today is the last day of Sean Quinn Junior's appeal hearing against his three month sentence for contempt of court but no imminent decision is expected.

IBRC's legal team has been responding to questions by the judges as to whether a finding that he lied to the High Court is a sufficient substitute for evidence that he was involved in the payment to Larissa Puga following a meeting in Kiev last autumn.

[supersarsfields]

Bank hasn't told court why Sean Quinn jnr is in jail, appeal hears

By TIm Healy
Thursday, 11 October 2012

The former Anglo Irish Bank has failed to tell the Irish Supreme Court exactly what Sean Quinn jnr is being held in prison for, his lawyers have claimed.

Anglo, now the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), has conceded there was "no direct evidence" to support a finding of contempt against him, Mr Quinn's lawyer Bill Shipsey also argued.

While just one finding of contempt was made against Mr Quinn, he was jailed for not reversing an entire asset-stripping scheme, Mr Shipsey said.

Paul Gallagher, counsel for the bank, contended "a chain of events" and 30 pieces of circumstantial evidence supported the Dublin High Court's finding that Mr Quinn participated in a $500,000 (£300,000) payment, on foot of which he was found in contempt.

The High Court was also entitled to jail him on July 20 after finding he had not complied with 30 coercive orders to reverse asset-stripping measures on grounds including that he was part of the Quinns' general asset stripping conspiracy, counsel said.

This was an "exceptional" case unlikely to be replicated and the courts must uphold constitutional values, Mr Gallagher urged.

The five-judge Supreme Court yesterday reserved to an unspecified date its judgment on Mr Quinn's appeal against being jailed following its finding of contempt and that he had not complied with 30 coercive orders to unwind measures to strip up to $430m (£270m) assets from the Quinn family's international property group.

In June, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne ruled he was in contempt of court orders of 2011 restraining stripping of assets.

The matter is for review on October 19.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/bank-hasnt-told-court-why-sean-quinn-jnr-is-in-jail-appeal-hears-16222770.html#ixzz28ytbMVdV

[gerrykeegan]

Doubt cast over Quinn Insurance's profitability
In this section »
Custom House Capital clients win liquidator fees challengeEllison working the oracle with yacht raceCOLM KEENA, Public Affairs Correspondent

QUINN INSURANCE group may never have made a profit, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure Reform was told by administrator Michael McAteer yesterday that a review of reserves, initiated in July 2010, came to an initial finding just a month later that there had been under-reserving in 2009 to the tune of €400 million.

"The effect of this was to eliminate the profit reserves of the company and question whether the company had been historically profitable," Mr McAteer said.

The review was conducted by an actuarial firm, EMB, which confirmed its position by November 5th.

On the receipt of EMB's analysis, actuarial provider Milliman, which worked for Quinn Insurance Ltd, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which audited the QIL accounts, "revisited their draft 2009 reserves and ultimately moved to levels in line with those arrived at by EMB".

Mr McAteer, who was appointed to QIL along with Paul McCann on March 30th, 2010, said they had come to the view that, prior to their appointment, there was a reluctance at Quinn Insurance to provide adequate reserves for large cases.

The State has, to date, paid €729 million into a court-administered fund to provide for losses at the company; a further €272 million is expected to be paid next year. After that, payments will drop to about €30 million a year.

At present, the worst case scenario for losses from the insurance group are €1.65 billion.

A levy imposed on all insurance policies bar health policies, in order to repay the State's investment, will probably have to run for 15 years.

Mr McAteer said the company was examining whether it can recoup some of the money lost by sueing those who provided professional advice to QIL.

An initial stage in the process of deciding whether to take such an action was likely to be completed by late November, and an outcome would be notified to the courts, he told the committee.

Independent TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said the primary responsibility for what had happened rested with the "cowboy capitalism that the Quinn family engaged in, motivated by greed".

When he said money was "essentially robbed out of the company", he was asked by committee chairman, Ciaran Lynch, who yesterday replaced former chairman, Alex White, to be more "prudential" with his language.

Mr Boyd-Barrett said it was "pretty criminal by any public standard" to declare profits when making losses and he asked how this was not spotted by the Central Bank at the time.

The head of general insurance supervision with the Central Bank, Domhnall Cullian, told the committee that an annual statement of actuarial opinion was required to be sent to the regulator each year by insurance companies. Each year unconditional reports were sent by Milliman, which was a respected firm.

Asked by Kieran O'Donnell if he was going to pursue €200 million that was gifted out of Quinn Insurance in 2008 to other companies owned by the Quinn family, Mr McAteer said there was no point in chasing money that the party on the other side couldn't repay.

[armaghniac]

Quinn unapologetic in the FT for leaving the rest of us to pay his debts.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b4ba5912-0c76-11e2-a776-00144feabdc0.html

[supersarsfields]

Sean Quinn didn't move the debt onto the tax payers so why would he apologise for it?

[IolarCoisCuain]

Can someone paste that FT piece here? Not everyone might have a subscription.

[supersarsfields]

I think this is the one.

Paint peeling off the wall in a corner of Sean Quinn's small office in a half-deserted industrial estate in Derrylin, Northern Ireland, illustrates how far Ireland's former richest man has fallen.

Three years ago, the "Mighty Quinn" controlled a $6bn conglomerate selling everything from cement to insurance and enjoyed all the trappings of wealth, including private jets and helicopters. Today, the 66-year-old entrepreneur is bankrupt and has been evicted from the nearby headquarters of the Quinn Group, the company he founded on his family's farm in 1973 with a £100 loan.


This month, Mr Quinn could join his only son in a Dublin jail because of his involvement in an elaborate scheme to put €500m of property assets beyond the reach of Anglo Irish Bank, the state-owned lender at the centre of Ireland's financial crisis.

Mr Quinn now accuses Anglo Irish of conducting a vendetta against him and insists he has become a scapegoat. He sees his potential imprisonment as an attempt by Ireland's authorities to close a chapter without tackling deeper failings in Anglo Irish and the broader establishment.

"The biggest disgrace about all this is they have my son in jail and me ready to go to it for taking assets which we believe then and now are ours," he argues with fists clenched.

The rise and fall of Mr Quinn, who has been found guilty of contempt of court and awaits sentencing on October 19, has come to epitomise the malaise at the heart of the Celtic Tiger. Only this week, Irish newspapers discovered €100,000 was lavished on a wedding cake for his daughter Ciara in 2007. The tale of greed, hubris and illegality cuts to the heart of many of the problems that propelled Dublin to the frontline of the crisis that has rocked the eurozone.

Most crucially, the Quinn case has prompted Ireland to bring in foreigners to clean up financial institutions in a country where family ties and connections are passports to success in both business and politics. The details of his complex financial transactions are a case study in the sort of overleveraged risk-taking and speculation that lay at the heart of the global financial meltdown.

But the international resonance of Mr Quinn's financial alchemy seems a world away from the winding roads of counties Cavan and Fermanagh, known as "Quinn Country". Few places better exemplify the fierce defence of local heroes that pervade Irish life. Messages of support are plastered on the lampposts. "Bullies beware! Keep Going Sean the truth is coming", says one poster. "Who bought the Irish media?" asks another.

Over a lunch of roast beef and mashed potatoes in Blakes pub in Derrylin, it is clear many still idolise Mr Quinn, who created thousands of jobs in a desperately poor area during the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s when sectarian violence convulsed Northern Ireland. His Slieve Russell hotel has been a keystone of local tourism.


A battle to recoup assets abroad

Anglo Irish Bank's pursuit of the Quinn Group's €500m property portfolio has all the makings of a spy thriller involving diplomacy, secret videotapes and legal cases in exotic locations.

Bank documents show 14 properties in Ukraine, Russia and India with a last known security value of almost $500m remain outside of the bank's control. These include the $80m Ukrainia shopping mall in Kiev, the $180m Kutuzoff tower in Moscow and the $26m Q City office development in Hyderabad. Annual rent rolls running to tens of millions of euros are said to be unaccounted for. Anglo Irish claims this money was transferred offshore and that the Quinns still control some of the assets.


"It's good to see you looking well Sean," says one elderly man. Two priests come over to say goodbye as they leave the pub and when Mr Quinn gets up to go there is a chorus of goodwill and handshakes all round.

Such was the depth of feeling for Mr Quinn when he was ousted from the Quinn Group in April 2011 that there was a spate of vandalism against company property. The car of the incoming chief executive was firebombed.

"There was a lot of bad feeling when the Quinn group was taken over. The word used here is that it was a military coup," says Bernie Maguire, Mr Quinn's sister. "People here are 99.9 per cent behind the Quinns."

In July, when his son was jailed for contempt of court for breaking court orders not to tamper with the property assets, 4,000 people rallied in support of the Quinn family in his home town of Ballyconnell, just across the border in the Irish Republic. A second rally is planned on Sunday.

However, elsewhere in Ireland, Mr Quinn is viewed as an arch-villain. People facing severe budget cuts and tax rises hold him, and those like him, directly responsible for their pain.

Critics accuse Mr Quinn of destabilising Ireland's financial system through anonymous share buying in Anglo Irish, a bank that funnelled tens of billions of euros to property developers. When that bubble burst Anglo Irish was nationalised at a cost of €28bn to taxpayers, eventually forcing Dublin into an international bailout. Mr Quinn is accused by his detractors of costing taxpayers up to €1.6bn from the collapse of Quinn Insurance and €2.8bn from unpaid debts to Anglo Irish.

In his defence, Mr Quinn depicts himself as misguided and thinks blame should be placed more squarely on Anglo Irish for extending loans to his increasingly distressed scheme.

"Sean Quinn has painted himself as a kind of King Lear figure – a man more sinned against than sinning," says Simon Carswell, author of Anglo Republic: Inside The Bank That Broke Ireland. "He is certainly a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions. He let greed cloud his judgment and gambled away his fortune. But it is ultimately the Irish public who will have to pay his debts," he says.


Mr Quinn's problems began in 2007 when he began betting on the share price of Anglo Irish. Using "contracts for difference", an anonymous form of investment that allows the holder to bet on price movements without buying the shares outright, he amassed a CFD-based holding in Anglo of more than 25 per cent.

He initially funded the bets with a €750m loan from the Quinn Group. When the bank's share price collapsed, Anglo Irish advanced loans to cover the group's CFD position and bolster its own share price. But when the Irish financial crisis intensified during 2009, the bank was nationalised exposing Quinn and ultimately Irish taxpayers to huge losses.

"It was never our intention to own 25 per cent of the bank but as it got cheaper we just seemed to buy more and we got sucked in," Mr Quinn says. His decision in 2002 to transfer ownership of the Quinn Group to his five adult children placed his family at the centre of the crisis.

The Quinns are punching back against Anglo Irish, saying €2.34bn of the €2.8bn loans given to them are "tainted with illegality". They argue those loans were intended to manipulate the market and are therefore not enforceable. The Quinns' action against the bank, if it gets to trial, could pose further embarrassing questions about how much regulators and politicians knew about what was going on at Anglo Irish.

Mr Quinn notes three former Anglo Irish executives, including Sean FitzPatrick, former chairman, were charged in relation to the share support scheme but are free on bail pending trial while his son, also Sean, is in prison.

Elaine Byrne, an expert on corruption for the European Commission, says the parallels between the collapse of Quinn's empire and Anglo Irish Bank reveal Ireland's weaknesses in regulation and governance. "Both companies involved chieftains at the centre of the business who were shown deference and trust by others in the company. They were very personalised businesses where the normal rules of governance did not seem to apply," she says.

When the financial crisis struck, Dublin reformed its regulatory system. It merged the financial regulatory authority with the central bank in 2010 and boosted staff by a third. It appointed foreigners to key posts. Matthew Elderfield, a Briton, became the new financial regulator in October 2009 and Mike Aynsley, an Australian, was appointed chief executive of Anglo Irish in September 2009.

"A whole new brigade came into Ireland," says Mr Quinn, who maintains that the authorities aimed to strip him of his company and remove the threat to the state posed by his family's legal action against the bank.

The bank and the financial regulator deny this, saying they protected taxpayers. "Sean Quinn is being unreasonable in his assessment of the bank's intentions," says Mr Aynsley of Anglo Irish, which was recently rebranded Irish Bank Resolution Corp. "He has chosen to disregard the court process and is progressing down a path of duplicitous action," he adds, arguing Mr Quinn has misappropriated "what are in effect state assets".

In March 2010, Mr Elderfield appointed administrators to Quinn Insurance, arguing it had failed to make adequate provision for its debts. In 2008, Mr Quinn was thrown off the board of Quinn Insurance and fined by the regulator for taking €288m in loans from the company to help pay for Anglo Irish shares.

Mr Quinn acknowledges this was a mistake but fiercely disputes Mr Elderfield's assessment that the company was underprovisioned. However, in July, Grant Thornton, the administrator, estimated the final bill to taxpayers could reach €1.6bn owing to losses at the company's UK operation.

A year later, Mr Quinn lost control of the wider Quinn Group as well, in effect ending his 38-year connection with the company. "Anglo were the most hated institution in the history of the state and they have very carefully turned that around and now it is Sean Quinn and his family that are the most hated," says Mr Quinn. "They have played a tremendous game here and are running the news seven nights a week. And all of a sudden they are the good guys."

Enlisting the help of a corporate restructuring firm based in Dubai, the Quinns devised a strategy to move the Quinn Group's €500m property portfolio out of reach of the bank. They transferred control of properties in Ukraine, Russia and India to offshore companies stretching from Belize to the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Quinn admits taking part in this scheme, saying the security Anglo Irish claims it has on the properties is not valid. But he says the family stopped when Anglo Irish secured a court injunction in June 2011 ordering them to cease their activities.

The Dublin High Court disagreed, ruling in June that three of the Quinns were in contempt of court for continuing to conduct transactions related to the foreign properties. The judge said they acted "as far removed from the concept of honour and respectability as it is possible to be".

Sean Quinn Jr is appealing against his jail sentence. His father was allowed three months to purge his contempt by helping Anglo Irish recover the property assets. Peter Darragh Quinn, Sean Quinn Sr's nephew, an accountant, has fled to Northern Ireland, from where he cannot be extradited on a civil conviction.

"I felt very disappointed that I had to be put in a position that I had to dissipate assets ... that is not in my DNA," says Mr Quinn, who insists he deserves public gratitude. "There are few companies in the history of the state that have contributed more to the Irish government, taxpayer and people than I have," he says. "Overall, I don't think that I owe the Irish taxpayer any apology."