A director of the board of trustees behind the Barne Estate, which is at the centre of High Court proceedings launched by John Magnier over a failed €15 million agreement, has told the court that €50,000 in brown envelopes offered by the Magnier side helped turn the trustees away from selling to him.
Benjamin Newman, a director of the trustees who hold the Co Tipperary estate for chief beneficiaries and heirs Richard Thomson-Moore and his sister, Alexandra, told Paul Gallagher SC, for the Magnier side, that the offer of €50,000 in two envelopes each containing €25,000 offered to the Thomson-Moores in September 2023 raised a “red flag” for the trust and was seen by them as a “pure inducement”.
Mr Newman told the court on Tuesday that the trustees had, up to the point they were informed of the envelope offerings in October 2023, preferred the bloodstock billionaire’s bid over that of construction magnate Maurice Regan, who was bidding €5 million more, to the “frustration” of the Thomson-Moores.
Mr Magnier wants the court to enforce the deal he claims he sealed with Mr Thomson-Moore in a handshake agreement for the 751-acre farm in Tipperary on August 22nd, 2023, at Mr Magnier’s Coolmore home.
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The Magnier side has sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group – the trustees – seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been “unequivocally” agreed.
The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement, as they needed the consent of the trustees to finalise any deal. They subsequently preferred to sell the estate to Mr Regan for €22.25 million.
Mr Thomson-Moore has told the court that while a “price” was agreed with Mr Magnier for Barne, a “deal” was not.
The trustees who hold the estate initially decided to remain loyal to the Magnier offer and felt Mr Regan’s higher offer could be seen as “provocative”. After the exclusivity period had ended, the trustees decided to go with Mr Regan’s offer.
The court has heard that on September 7th, 2023 – two weeks after Mr Magnier claims he shook hands with Mr Thomson-Moore on the deal for the Barne Estate – Mr Magnier called to Barne with his son, JP.
The Thomson-Moores have told the court that estate agent John Stokes brought two brown envelopes given to him by JP containing a total of €50,000 in cash.
The Magnier side have told the court that the money was a token of “appreciation” to the Thomson-Moores for letting the Magnier side on to the land before any sale was finalised.
Mr Newman said he had since accepted that this was the reason for the money according to the evidence given by the Magnier side.
Mr Thomson-Moore has told the court the delivery of the money caused him “shock” and he felt the offer of “envelopes stuffed with cash” was “untoward”. The money was later returned by the Thomson-Moores.
At the High Court on Tuesday, Mr Newman said that in October 2023, two factors turned the trustees away from Mr Magnier towards Mr Regan. The first factor was the offer of cash to the Thomson-Moores, which Mr Newman said was viewed by the trustees as a “pure inducement” and that “significant” concerns were raised relating to “anti-corruption and bribery codes of practice” employed by the trust.
The second factor, he said, concerned due diligence on Mr Regan’s cash bid of €22.25 million – almost a 50 per cent increase on the final Magnier bid of €16 million plus a €500,000 trust for a child of Richard and Anna Thomson-Moore – which could be considered only after the one-month period of exclusivity between the Thomson-Moores and the Magnier side had elapsed.
The due diligence on Mr Regan’s bid was to establish his “genuine, bona fide” interest in the purchase and to make sure it was not a “provocative” bid designed to frustrate any sale to the Magnier side, said Mr Newman.
Mr Newman said until the exclusivity agreement expired the trustees were “absolutely very happy and keen” to stick with Mr Magnier and honour the agreement, even though it was a smaller offer.
He said the agreement on the price was “never presented to the trustees as a deal being done” as no one present at the August 2023 meeting had the capacity to agree a “deal” without trustee approval.
Mr Newman said that after the expiry of the exclusivity agreement at the end of September 2023, the transaction became a “purely commercial” one and Mr Regan’s higher bid won out.
Mr Newman told Martin Hayden SC, for the Thomson-Moore side, that Mr Regan had loaned, with interest, Barne Estate Ltd the cost of defending the court action taken by Mr Magnier and had also put down a “non-refundable” deposit on the purchase of the land.
Mr Newman said the €22.25 million figure was a “life-changing one, a big number ... way over what we had anticipated”.
The case continues before Mr Justice Max Barrett.
