Quinn Playing Dirty (with Irish Taxpayer)

I've written on this subject on several occassions over the past few months and contributed my research to other political blog sites.

The Irish public seems to be absolutely unaware of 'poor old' Sean Quinns attempts to steal hundreds of millions from the Irish Taxpayer.

Quinns family companies/trusts retain some sizable property assets in Russia, Ukraine, India, Turkey and other locations and for many months the Quinn Family and its representatives have been working behind the scenes attempting to change the ownership of properties to newly setup offshore trusts before IBRC (Anglo or if you prefer 'us') can legally move on the property.

The 'attempted scam' would seem quite simple on the face of it, Fermanagh Trust Ltd transfers the property to Fermanagh Trust Inc, this is carried out discreetly and not picked up by anyone initially. The problem is that the Irish Public (through the IRBC) will be preparing to pursue Fermanagh Trust Ltd through the courts in Cyprus (where it is registered), not knowing that the ownership has been transferred to Fermanagh Trust Inc registered in Belize.

I am unaware of the miniscule details, however a couple of months ago Quinn was rumbled attempting to transfer one of his sizable assets to a Belize registered trust. News published on 5th January 2012 indicates that a British Virgin Islands Company (generally regarded as bogus companies used for tax evasion and effectively outside the law) has taken ownership of the Kiev Shopping Mall. BVI companies are normally owned by trusts which are registered in Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey and discovery of the complex ownership can prove difficult especially when dealing with secretive jurisdictions. No doubt the Quinns are the benificiaries of the company which is currently receiving rental income in excess of €10M per year from the shopping mall in question (remember this property should now be owned by the Irish public as part payment on the €2.5BN in outstanding loans)

The IRBC (the Irish public) is currently pursuing Quinn through Ukranian and Cypriot courts and has cases pending in Russia - this is why the IRBC has requested a stay on any changes to the ownership of the properties pending outcome of the cases. Both the Irish Government and IRBC (and myself) have doubts about the impartiality of the Ukranian Courts. Remember that opposition politicians can be effectively found guilty on the instructions of the Ukranian President and both Lawyers and Judges are open to bribes.

Quinn is now playing very dirty with the Irish Public.


Quinn says he is shocked State 'interfered' in his cases abroad
Ref: Irish Independent 29.11.2011FORMER BILLIONAIRE Seán Quinn said yesterday he was “shocked” that Government Ministers had “interfered” in court proceedings abroad where his family is trying to prevent properties worth hundreds of millions of euro being seized by the state-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo. Mr Quinn made the comment in a statement issued after the Commercial Court in Dublin made an unprecedented €1.7 billion summary judgment order against him in favour of the bank.


A spokesman for Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed last night that a case being taken in Ukraine by the bank in relation to valuable property there was “referenced” by Mr Kenny during a meeting in September with Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. “It was referenced, not discussed, and with a full expression of respect for the independence of the Ukrainian judicial process,” the spokesman said.


Mr Quinn’s comment is also understood to be a reference to alleged representations by the Irish Embassy to Russia, where the Quinns also bought valuable commercial property using loans from Anglo. In October, a Russian businessman, Andrey Golishev, reportedly wrote to the Irish Ambassador in Moscow, Philip McDonagh, complaining of representations made to the Russian ministry of foreign affairs. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs was not able to comment on the matter last night.


Mr Quinn’s wife, Patricia, and the couple’s five children are involved in multi-jurisdictional disputes with the bank over properties in Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and India. The bank is trying to seize the properties which it says were given as collateral for massive loans given to the family by Anglo. However, the family is resisting the bank’s efforts, disputing the legality of the loans and the charges the bank says it has on the properties. The properties are believed to be worth in excess of €500 million.


Last week, a Dublin accountant, Robert Dix, who is involved in the efforts of the bank to seize the properties, wrote an open letter to prime minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, in which he said the company that legitimately owned a Kiev shopping mall worth tens of millions of euro, was in danger of being deprived of its property. The massive judgment order made against Mr Quinn yesterday followed another order made last week for €417 million, again in favour of the bank, bringing the total owed by Mr Quinn to €2.16 billion.


In the statement issued by his public relations consultant yesterday, Mr Quinn said: “Today’s action by Anglo Irish Bank in my view is totally pointless, self-serving and vindictive.” He added: “In no way does it improve the bank’s prospects of recovering money for the taxpayer.

Reported in 'The Daily Mail' Nov 29th 2011

In court Quinn's lawyer claimed that the family home in fact belongs to his children, and that he had no assets and a pension worth just €10,000. But Land Registry documents show the house was only ever registered in the name of Mr Quinn and his wife, implying that some sort of private transfer of ownership may have happened since.


There have been plenty more transfers of assets by the Quinn family, who were recently accused in court by Anglo of engaging in a 'conspiracy' to hide and redistribute their assets. His children and sons-in-laws are already facing criminal investigation in Sweden for allegedly putting assets out of the reach of Anglo Irish Bank.

Anglo has lodged formal complaints to the Company Registrations Office in Stockholm, claiming the Quinns had illegally transferred properties worth hundreds of millions out of its reach.The complaints were made under Chapter 11 of the Swedish Criminal Code, which carries prison sentences of up to six years.

Investigations have also revealed that the Quinn family have created dozens of new companies all over the world, from Cavan to Moscow and India, in a mirror structure of the original Quinn Group – with assets now moved into the new firms. Two husbands of Seán Quinn's daughters, both of whom married into the family within the past five years, have emerged as the directors of many of these firms. Unlike Mr Quinn's children, the two men never signed guarantees to Anglo loans.

In one case, a €180m Moscow office block and almost €5m in cash were moved from a Quinn company into a new firm. Seán Quinn senior and his children are being sued by Anglo for personal guarantees they made in relation to €2.8bn in loans used to buy shares in Anglo. The bank claims the transfers breach personal guarantees and described some of them in court as 'asset stripping'.


And in the latest twist, we have a new defence for a €3M loan owed by Patricia Quinn (for home decorating) - the defence is effectively "he told me to do it......"
It would be interesting to see someone try "Honest Guv....I wouldnt have robbed the bank, but my wife has expensive tastes and she wore the pants in our relationship".

Thankfully, a ruling has been made in favour of the Bank (or the public if you prefer)

www.independent.ie 16th Dec 2011


THE wife of bankrupt Sean Quinn, who was once Ireland’s richest man, has been ordered to repay a €3m loan from Anglo Irish Bank that she signed her name to, but claims she knew nothing about.Mr Justice Peter Kelly made the order at the Commercial Court today. Patricia Quinn was also ordered to pay the costs of the case taken by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IRBC), formerly Anglo.


She had claimed that that she only "very recently" became aware she was a customer of Anglo Irish Bank -- even though her name appears on loan documents for millions of euro of borrowings from the nationalised bank. Summing up, Justice Peter Kelly said Mrs Quinn had failed to make an arguable defense to the claim by the bank for the repayment of the loan. He added that even a glance at the documents she signed would have shown all but an illiterate person that it was some form of borrowing from the bank.


In court papers filed in the family’s separate legal action against the bank it was also revealed that her daughter Brenda became the owner of the Slieve Russell Hotel in Cavan when she was aged just three. The Quinn family claim that the hotel has been owned by Brenda since it was built in 1990 but was held in trust for her by her mother until she turned 18. They admitted that it was difficult to say when Brenda became aware of her ownership of the hotel, according to a report in today’s Irish Times. Mrs Quinn and her five children are challenging the bank’s claims that they owe €2.3bn claiming that the loans are “tainted with illegality”.


Mrs Quinn’s claims were read out in the Commercial Court, as her lawyers attempted to fight off Anglo Irish Bank's attempts to force her to repay a €3m loan she signed with her husband. Her lack of knowledge of her dealings, an ignorance she described as "embarrassing", is all the more striking since her husband famously lost more than €3bn on a disastrous punt on Anglo's shares. In court yesterday, Mrs Quinn claimed she was not liable for the loan because she never realised she had signed up for it, never received the benefit of it and never received any legal advice before signing the loan documents. But the senior lawyer acting for Anglo, Paul Gallagher, said Mrs Quinn was making "incredible" claims that she did not have to repay the loan because she was a homemaker unduly influenced by her husband.


Mrs Quinn's barrister, Bill Shipsey, said that while it may sound astonishing, his client was a housewife with no business sophistication and a claim of undue influence could be advanced in her case. Mr Justice Peter Kelly quoted Mr Bumble from Charles Dickens's novel 'Oliver Twist' and said if that was the law, then "the law is an ass". He said Mrs Quinn was advancing the "startling proposition" she was "a cat's paw" for her husband with no clue about documents she was signing and also "clueless" about being a director of many companies and a company secretary. Anglo, now known as Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), has strongly rejected Mrs Quinn's claims that she is not responsible for the loan.

It has also argued that while she disputed the bank's description of her as a "business lady", she had been a director of 63 Quinn group companies in the Republic, 28 Quinn companies in the UK and secretary of about 10 companies. In an affidavit, Mrs Quinn said she was not a business lady, had been a homemaker for the past 36 years and had been looking after her husband since she married at the age of 21. However, Mr Gallagher referred to an affidavit in which Michael O'Sullivan, of Anglo, said Mrs Quinn displayed business knowledge during a conversation with him. Mrs Quinn has also claimed she only realised "very recently" she was a customer of Anglo. She claims that over many years she signed documents when asked to do so by her husband or his colleagues in the Quinn group, but says she was never informed about the nature or impact of the documents. "This is embarrassing to admit but it is the truth," she said in an affidavit.


IBRC was previously granted summary judgment against Mr Quinn over the €3m loan. The bank claimed it was told the loan was to go towards decorating the Quinns' home at Ballyconnell, but the court heard Mr Quinn had directed the money be paid into an account of Quinn Manufacturing Ltd.


Mrs Quinn argues she has a defence on several grounds to the bank's claim and is entitled to a full hearing. In affidavits, she said she never worked with the Quinn group of companies and was never involved in any business or financial dealings "beyond deciding upon the weekly groceries and providing for the household expenses". She only became aware of the loan and demand for repayment after this case was taken, she said. It was now clear to her, contrary to what was stated on the loan facility letter, that the funds were used for commercial purposes, she added. Mr Gallagher argued nothing said by Mrs Quinn amounted to a defence to summary judgment. A document signed in five places by Mrs Quinn on December 14, 2006, was clearly for a loan and she had signed under the words, "Borrower's Acceptance". She accepted those were her signatures. Mrs Quinn also did not deny the extent of her company directorships. If she signed documents without reading or understanding them, that was negligence on her part for which the bank was not liable.


If she was found to be not liable because she did not read the documents, that would have huge implications for contracts, he said. Mr Shipsey argued the bank had failed to address Mrs Quinn's claim she did not understand she was going to personally borrow €3m. Mr Justice Kelly noted that during another case about 25 years ago concerning the conduct of the affairs of a pub company, the late Ms Justice Mella Carroll observed the days were gone when wives could be treated akin to infants or persons of unsound mind.
- Laura Noonan and Independent.ie reporters

Shannon Development

Although the idea of a Casino complete with immitation ‘White House’ in the middle of the ‘bog of allen’ and close to no major urban centre or transport hub was as daft as the ‘Bertie Bowl’ and underlined both the madness of the Celtic Tiger mentality and what political petitioning can achieve; a greatly amended use of the concept could be good for the economy.


Gambling is a huge industry, with a massive following (you need only look at the internet) – and many enjoy the atmosphere of a proper casino or complex of casinos.

What if:

• An Atlantic City - mini Las Vegas was permitted at a location immediately adjacent to the west side of Shannon Airport.

• The State retained the ‘freehold’ but gave permission to major international casinos to develop hotels & casinos on the site on say 50 year leases.

• International Groups develop their hotel/casinos at their own expense.

• Developers build all services.

• Government to charge substantial annual ground rent.

• If the government was to compel development to an outline plan, the complex could consist of 8-10 hotels around a series of roofed plazas etc.

• Complex could incorporate conference centre, concert venue etc

• A direct metro link from Shannon Airport Terminal to the complex.

• If marketed in the right way (Vegas Style) Shannon could become a hub for those travelling in and out of Europe from USA and further afield.

• Shannon would become a destination in its own right – there is not a great deal of difference in flight time between Boston & Vegas and Boston & Shannon.

• A substantial proportion of visitors would be from outside Ireland.

• Many would travel out of the complex on tours, golf trips etc.

The bonuses are:

• An uptake in construction work for a handful of years and remember our Fas legacy has left so many Irish with no skillsets other than construction.

• A large number of people employed when the complex comes online, including additional jobs at Shannon Airport and the surrounding area.

• The rebirth of Shannon Airport, rather than the current decline.

• There would be no requirement to impose a Shannon Stopover – they’d want Shannon as a destination.

• Great boost for Aer Lingus & Ryanair

• Increase in tourism to the West/South West.

• The spin off into everything from suppliers of foodstuffs and maintenance companies to mobile phone companies (roaming) would be huge.

There is no centre such as this in Europe and there is surely a market for this type of venue and I cant believe the penny hasn’t dropped with some of our politicians.

Picasso

Break up of Euro Zone and Anarchy (1)

We are already deep into the danger zone, what happens if governments suddenly cannot borrow. Public sector wages are not paid, unemployment benefits are not paid and the spiral dowwards suddenly goes into a vertically downwards curve.

It is logical to assume in that scenario that anarchy will take over the streets and we are not very far from that scenario at the time of writing.

Although various industry sectors will suffer downturns from time to time, unemployment has been high in specific sectors from time to time, the only parallel to a universal high unemployment depression where the currency fails, we must look to events which destroyed the Weimar Republic (post WW1 Germany into the Great Depression), similar events have occurred or near occurred in many other countries, however many of these occurrences have been in police or semi-police states where public order is 'imposed'. The Euro block has no very recent history of police states, the general public is far more mobilised than at the time of the Great Depression and with high streets almost dominated by large multinational chain stores, the instruments of difficult times (customer credit, price cutting etc) will not be seen.

Globalisation has removed much of the personal interaction of high street business, many of the public see themselves merely as 'worker ants' in a corportae run world, many see global corportaions as the root cause of current issues and with no other option would have less misgivings simply taking what they need from multinational high street stores than their forefathers would have had effectively robbing from their neighbour the store owner.

Prepare for riots in euro collapse, British Foreign Office warns

 British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.  The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way  As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.


Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.  The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.  A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government’s concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.  “It’s in our interests that they keep playing for time because that gives us more time to prepare,” the minister told the Daily Telegraph.


Recent Foreign and Commonwealth Office instructions to embassies and consulates request contingency planning for extreme scenarios including rioting and social unrest. Greece has seen several outbreaks of civil disorder as its government struggles with its huge debts. British officials think similar scenes cannot be ruled out in other nations if the euro collapses. Diplomats have also been told to prepare to help tens of thousands of British citizens in eurozone countries with the consequences of a financial collapse that would leave them unable to access bank accounts or even withdraw cash.


Fuelling the fears of financial markets for the euro, reports in Madrid yesterday suggested that the new Popular Party government could seek a bail-out from either the European Union rescue fund or the International Monetary Fund. There are also growing fears for Italy, whose new government was forced to pay record interest rates on new bonds issued yesterday. The yield on new six-month loans was 6.5 per cent, nearly double last month’s rate. And the yield on outstanding two-year loans was 7.8 per cent, well above the level considered unsustainable. Italy’s new government will have to sell more than EURO 30 billion of new bonds by the end of January to refinance its debts. Analysts say there is no guarantee that investors will buy all of those bonds, which could force Italy to default.


The Italian government yesterday said that in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Prime Minister Mario Monti had agreed that an Italian collapse “would inevitably be the end of the euro.” The EU treaties that created the euro and set its membership rules contain no provision for members to leave, meaning any break-up would be disorderly and potentially chaotic.  If eurozone governments defaulted on their debts, the European banks that hold many of their bonds would risk collapse.  Some analysts say the shock waves of such an event would risk the collapse of the entire financial system, leaving banks unable to return money to retail depositors and destroying companies dependent on bank credit.


The Financial Services Authority this week issued a public warning to British banks to bolster their contingency plans for the break-up of the single currency.  Some economists believe that at worst, the outright collapse of the euro could reduce GDP in its member-states by up to half and trigger mass unemployment. Analysts at UBS, an investment bank earlier this year warned that the most extreme consequences of a break-up include risks to basic property rights and the threat of civil disorder.  “When the unemployment consequences are factored in, it is virtually impossible to consider a break-up scenario without some serious social consequences,” UBS said.

Ireland triggered Euro Crisis

Reading the below, it won't be long before the Germans stop referring to the Irish as the 'model citizens of bankrupt europe' - seems Ireland may have toppled the first domino.

Anglo Triggered Euro Crisis

Irish Independent Thursday Nov 24th 2011

THE decision by Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank was the trigger for the global financial crisis, two well-respected International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists said in a report. A study of data such as bond yields suggests that it was the decision to take the insolvent bank into state control four months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers that turned the world's financial problems into a full-blown crisis, claim Ashoka Mody and Sandri Damiano. "The relevance of Anglo is, at first, not obvious, since it was a small bank in a relatively small country," the two IMF researchers say. "However, the data quite robustly suggests a break at this point."


Most Irish officials still defend the decision, arguing that the collapse of Anglo would have led to the collapse of Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland as well. A report by Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan last year also concluded that the decision to nationalise Anglo was the right one because of the dangers posed to the main lenders. The IMF economists believe that the large cost of rescuing the bank relative to Ireland's economic output raised serious concerns about the wider economy; a banking problem had become the State's problem.


The projected cost of rescuing Anglo is €34bn -- although the figure could be lower. "Suddenly, the ability of the sovereigns (governments) to support the financial sector came into question," write Mr Mody and Mr Damiano. "The worrying news a few months later about Greece's fiscal imbalances confirmed that the eurozone crisis had evolved from a banking crisis into a sovereign crisis."
Policy


The two economists say Anglo Irish should have been slowly closed down rather than nationalised. This is now Government policy but many attempts were made to keep Anglo going before the policy changed. Mr Lenihan argued in 2010 that it would have cost more to close the bank and than keep it open.


Mr Mody, an economist who escaped a bizarre assasination attempt at his home near Washington DC when Dominique Strauss-Khan was head of the IMF, knows Ireland well and was a member of the IMF team that came here in the wake of last year's bailout. He was also assistant director in the IMF's European Department -- although the opinions expressed in the research paper are not official IMF views.
Not all European bank rescues were wrong, the researchers add. Most banks were in a better position than Anglo and some governments had more money which allowed them to rescue their lenders. In future, governments need to better distinguish between banks that are worth saving and banks that should be closed, they write. "A more resolute strategy for winding down banks is also needed." Rescuing banks such as Anglo created a vicious circle for governments because the value of state bonds often fell after the government took the risk of saving a lender. Banks are the biggest owners of government bonds which meant that the banks lost money as government bonds slumped. "At this point, the sovereign and banks were joined at the hip, with their respective weaknesses threatening to reinforce each other," they add.