A death threat had been made in India and people imprisoned there because of financial difficulties involving the Dundalk Business School Ltd, which runs a college of further education, the High Court was told yesterday.
Miss Justice Laffoy appointed a provisional liquidator to the company. She was told the company is insolvent and unable to pay its debts as they fall due.
As of November 24th its estimated total liabilities were €668,000, while its assets were estimated at €332,000.
A director of the company, Mr Mark Markey, said in an affidavit that the Dundalk premises had been raided by gardaí in September and as a result the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) had ceased granting visas to any students who had paid fees or deposits to the company.
Mr Markey said the other three directors were non-residents. The company had a number of agents, mainly in India, who in turn had sub-agents marketing its courses to locals.
Over the winter of 2003-2004, difficulties had arisen with courses being offered by the company.
In particular some of the promises made by the company's agents to students in India could not be fulfilled.
Mr Markey said he and his co-directors denied categorically that there had been any fraud, and the company offered a bona-fide school which had got into difficulties for trading reasons.
Mr Brian Kennedy, for the company, said that about 200 Indian students were seeking refunds. The main difficulty for the company concerned an investigation into its affairs by the GNIB earlier this year, which culminated in a raid on the premises.
Mr Kennedy said there were about 200 creditors of the company in India who had paid deposits of between €1,000 and €7,500, which were quite significant sums.
There were 85 students in Dundalk who had paid their deposits and fees to come to do a business computer course for periods of from one month to a year, which could be extended, and they had the right to work for some hours each week.
The college had only opened in 2003. Costs had been higher than anticipated, and there were students' complaints in relation to the quality of the course.
Complaints had been made, one of the company's agents in India had received a death threat and the company's Indian-based directors had been asked to leave that jurisdiction.