Seán Quinn’s loans ‘put his childrens’ heads in noose’
THE five children of former billionaire Seán Quinn have claimed they are not responsible for loans of €2.34billion because their father had ‘total control’ of the family business.
The huge loans they guaranteed for their father ‘ultimately have had disastrous consequences’ for them, the High Court’s commercial wing was told yesterday.
Their barrister recalled how Seán Quinn Jr, 38, and his sisters Brenda, Aoife, Ciara and Colette enjoyed ‘lavish indulgences’ thanks to their father’s success. The five wouldn’t refuse a request from their father but had unknowingly ‘put their heads in the noose’ for a liability of €415million as a result of signed guarantees, the court heard.
In their lawsuit, the adult children say that Anglo Irish Bank breached its duty of care to them and they are seeking a damages payout. In their case against Irish Bank Resolution Corporation – the company in charge of chasing unpaid debts to Anglo – the five siblings accuse their father of having ‘gambled’ with their future and say they are not responsible for his loans.
Their action to remove themselves from liability was first lodged in 2011 over unpaid loans that were advanced as far back as 2007, but despite recent attempts at mediation it has never been resolved. The court case opened yesterday and is set to run for six months. It will hear from 49 witnesses – including jailed former Anglo chief David Drumm.
The siblings argue that, while they owned the Quinn businesses in the Republic, their father had ‘total operational control’ and that there was ‘no room for discussion’. They contend that Anglo ‘exploited their weakness’ in the knowledge of the ‘influence’ that Mr Quinn Sr, now 71, exerted over his offspring.
Mr Quinn Sr was jailed for nine weeks in 2012 for breaching High Court orders forbidding him from touching overseas property assets while IBRC was trying to recover money from him. He was also declared bankrupt in the same year – a process he exited in 2015.
Opening the case for the siblings, Bernard Dunleavy SC told Judge Garrett Simons that the quintet might have been regarded as ‘among the richest in the country’ from 2007 onwards. But this was not the reality and never has been, he claimed, because they have always led ‘relatively modest lives’.
It was previously reported that Ciara Quinn celebrated her wedding to solicitor Niall McPartland in 2007 with a cake flown in from New York worth up to €100,000.
Yesterday, Mr Dunleavy told the court: ‘They enjoyed indulgences and benefits that were more lavish than anyone working at their position in business might have expected. But they did so always at the gift of their father. That was because the money in the business belonged to their father and
Father had ‘total control’
not to them. The children might have been the owners of [Quinn Group] ROI – but at all times it remained their father’s business, and that was a state of affairs that never varied.
‘Seán Quinn Sr was in total operational control of the business. There was no room for discussion in the execution of the plans of his business. What he said, went.’
The siblings claim that Anglo loaned them the billions as part of the bank’s plan to ‘prop up its share price’ as it teetered towards collapse in 2007 and 2008.
The hearing continues.