Controversial landlord Marc Godart, a director of 40 Irish companies, has been disqualified from acting as a company director by the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA).
The disqualification, which lasts for five years, was made in the public interest, the authority said. The Luxembourg native voluntarily accepted the disqualification without the initiation of High Court proceedings.
Mr Godart (36) and his companies have been before the courts on numerous occasions in recent years for a variety of reasons, including illegal evictions, the unauthorised letting of property on a short-term basis, the non-payment of awards made to tenants by the Residential Tenancies Board, and fire safety issues.
The multimillion-euro property ownership and residential letting business run Mr Godart has been the subject of extensive media coverage, including in The Irish Times, as has his treatment of his employees and his provision of emergency accommodation to international protection applicants.
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“Company law confers significant benefits and privileges on those wishing to engage in commercial activity through corporate activity,” the authority said.
In return for these benefits, it said, company law requires adherence to certain minimum standards of governance, transparency and probity.
“In this case, based on underlying information collated and carefully assessed and on associated enquiries, the CEA took the view that disqualification was warranted in the public interest.”
In February last year, following a report in The Irish Times, the then tánaiste and now Taoiseach Micheál Martin, speaking in the Dáil, said the matters disclosed should be of interest to the corporate watchdog, Dublin City Council, the Workplace Relations Commission, An Garda Síochána and potentially other parties.
A request for a response from Mr Godart concerning his disqualification met with no response.
The Luxembourg businessman began incorporating Irish companies in 2014 for a range of business purposes, including investing in Irish property. The Irish companies, which include Green Label Short Lets Ltd and Green Label Property Investments Ltd, are owned by companies in Luxembourg which are in turn owned by Mr Godart.
In recent company filings Mr Godart has given an address in Riga, Latvia, which is also the address of a Latvian company called Green Assets Ltd. Green Assets is involved in the renting or management of its own or leased real estate, according to Latvian records.
In March last year Mr Justice Brian Cregan, in the High Court, described Mr Godart’s corporate structure with holding companies in Luxembourg as “clearly quite a murky structure.”
He was commenting in a case where former tenant Lizet Pena-Herrera took proceedings against Green Label Short Lets Ltd over the non-payment of a debt arising from her illegal eviction. Mr Godart swore an affidavit saying the company did not have the money to pay the debt and that his Irish companies were obliged to remit money to his Luxembourg companies under the corporate structure that had been put in place.
After the court ordered Mr Godart to appear in court to answer questions, Green Label borrowed money and settled the debt with Ms Pena-Herrara. Mr Godart was made personally liable for 80 per cent of the legal costs awarded to Ms Pena-Herrera and against Green Label because, the judge said, he “acted in bad faith and with impropriety from start to finish in the conduct of these proceedings.”
The latest accounts filed in Luxembourg for Mr Godart’s two companies there, Itzig Sarl and Hesper SA, are for 2021.
