WITHIN MINUTES of the first witness entering the box at the Seán Quinn contempt hearings, the family’s enmity towards Anglo Irish Bank took centre stage.
The case has been going on since Wednesday but only yesterday did the the first witness, Peter Darragh Quinn (34), a nephew of Mr Quinn, take the stand. The accountant has, for the past number of years, been managing the Quinn family’s international property portfolio.
He told the court it could be difficult to get money out of Russia, where the family owns a valuable commercial building. A Russian company, Finansstroy, that owns a Moscow office block, had a debt to a Co Fermanagh company, Demesne, that was owned by the Quinns. This allowed the family to get its money out of Russia.
At some stage last year, Demesne’s entitlement to $130 million was transferred on, for a nominal value, either to a former Ukrainian railway worker and construction site labourer, Yaroslav Gurnyak, or a Belize company called Galfis Overseas Ltd.
Peter Quinn said he was involved in the assignment of the debt to Mr Gurnyak, whom he had met only twice, and not until after his having been assigned the right to the debt. He said documents showing the assignment of the debt to Galfis, which contained his signature, were forgeries.
The bank claims Peter Quinn and Seán Quinn continued to implement their policy of putting assets beyond the reach of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, after Mr Justice Frank Clarke ordered them last June not to do so.
In his evidence, Peter Quinn agreed the debts were assigned away from Demesne for nominal value. The primary motive of the move, he said, was to “stop Anglo getting access to the money”.
The family had an agreement with Gurnyak’s lawyers that the family will get 20 per cent “of anything received”. This agreement was originally in writing but, on foot of advice from Russian solicitors, was switched to a “gentleman’s agreement”.
Peter Quinn said the Quinn family did not want the bank to get access to the cash flow from the Russian building, as it does not accept the validity of the bank seizing the property on foot of debts which the family disputes.
The family, he said, did not tell the bank what it was up to. Anglo was not upfront with the family, he said, when “under cover of darkness” it swept into Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, in April of last year, and took over the Quinn Group.
A former player with the Fermanagh GAA football team, Quinn seems set for a hard few days in the witness box. Seán Quinn and his son Seán Quinn jnr, will be watching and waiting their turns in the witness box.
The bank is looking to have the three men committed to prison. They deny the charges the bank has brought against them and are all expected to give evidence before the case concludes.
