THE BILLIONAIRE Barclay brothers “will stop at nothing” to undermine Irish property developer Patrick McKillen’s financial position, the high court in London has been told.
The charge was made during a case where Mr McKillen alleges he was improperly denied the opportunity to buy a share in three luxury London hotels held by financier Derek Quinlan.
The developer is seeking to ensure details of his private financial affairs are not shared with the Barclays and others parties to his legal action, including the National Asset Management Agency. He is also attempting to ensure that some parts of the hearing before Mr Justice David Richards are held without the presence of the press. This will be challenged today by a number of newspapers.
Mr McKillen’s barrister, Philip Marshall, said it has been acknowledged that agents for the Barclays had tried to buy debt held on the Belfast-born developer’s assets by Bank of Scotland Ireland.
The “history” had been “to destabilise so far as possible Mr McKillen’s financial position by any means possible including in relation to dealings with other creditors”. “So we are concerned that the indications are that the Barclay brothers and those who are acting on their behalf will stop at nothing in order to try to undermine Mr McKillen’s financial position,” he said.
A text message from a Barclay executive to David Barclay claimed that Bank of Scotland Ireland had said it could not sell McKillen loans that they had held without his permission.
“However, they told me they would do the work for us and are planning to demand repayment and put him on default of good news. They have promised to keep me posted,” the message read.
Richard Faber, who also works for the brothers, later contacted the Department of Finance about Anglo Irish Bank loans to Mr McKillen after he had not “got very much joy” from the bank’s successor, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).
In a conversation with department official Danny Buckley, Mr Faber said the IBRC delays in not acting against Mr McKillen “could prove costly to the Irish taxpayer”.
This information was later shared within the Barclay organisation, including to David Barclay’s son, Aidan, so it could be seen that “it is something that has been organised within the whole organisation”, Mr Marshall said.
The restrictions on disclosing information about Mr McKillen’s affairs should also affect Derek Quinlan, who Mr Marshall said, “is aligned with the Barclay interests. We know that his legal costs are being met, for example, by them [and] that he has been co-operating with them in connection with the affairs of the company.
“More specifically, we say there is actually specific evidence of him breaching confidence in order to assist them,” he said, producing some emails from Mr Quinlan’s associate, Gerry Murphy.
Vigorously rejecting Mr Marshall’s contentions, Kenneth Maclean, who represents a Barclays company, Ellerman, said the Barclays had been entitled to seek to buy Mr McKillen’s loans.
