An audit of the company that operates the shopping mall in Kiev formerly owned by the Quinn family has indicated that up to $15 million may have been transferred out of the company’s accounts in the 2011 to 2012 period.
The company has been under the control of a new director, Rostyslav Levinzon, since earlier this year. His appointment, at the request of a share receiver in Sweden appointed at the request of Anglo Irish Bank, took more than a year to implement and was resisted by the management that had been in place at the time the mall was run for the Quinn family.
The Ukraina shopping mall has an annual rent roll of some $10 million that is collected by a a local company, Univermag.
The new management has said $15 million was transferred from the mall’s bank accounts to two Ukrainian brokerages and a company in the British Virgin Islands.
The latter company, Lyndhurst Developments, was part of a scheme whereby the Quinn family sought to have a $45 million debt owed by Univermag to a company in Northern Ireland, put beyond the reach of Anglo.
Mr Rostyslav has told a local newspaper, the Kiev Post , that virtually all the mall's revenue has been shifted to accounts of firms in ongoing court battles in Ukraine with Univermag.
Bankruptcy of Univermag
The two Ukrainian brokerages are Elegant Invest and Zenit. Elegant Invest has been seeking win the right in Ukrainian courts to the debt transferred by the Northern Ireland company, Demesne Investments, to Lyndhurst, and onwards from that company to Elegant. A successful assertion of the right to the money could mean the bankruptcy of Univermag and the mall falling into the hands of the unknown persons represented by Elegant Invest.
Prior to Mr Levinzon asserting control over Univermag in February, it had been run by local businesswoman Larissa Yanez Puga. Members of the Quinn family have told the Irish courts that Ms Yanez Puga is no longer working in their interests.
A payment of $500,000 to Ms Yanez Puga was behind the jailing of Seán Quinn jnr for civil contempt last year.
A secret video of a meeting last year between Mr Quinn jnr, Ms Yanez Puga and others, that subsequently came into the public domain, appeared to support the Quinn family’s assertion that their relationship with Ms Yanez Puga had soured.
Fresh details
Meanwhile, a press conference is to be held in Moscow today at which fresh details concerning the deal with the massive Russian asset recovery business, A1, are to be outlined.
Anglo Irish Bank is part of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which is now in liquidation. Representatives of the Irish Embassy in Moscow are expected to attend the Moscow press conference as are executives from A1 and a representative from KPMG, which is involved in the liquidation of the IBRC.
A1, which is part of the Russian Alpha Group, is to recover as much as it can of the Quinn property portfolio in Russia and the Ukraine and split the proceeds with its Irish partners.
