The family behind Nolan Transport have registered a €6.9 million judgment against their former solicitor after a lengthy High Court action.
Solicitor Ciaran Desmond, who denied any wrongdoing, consented to the judgment last May in a case taken against him by members of the family that owns the Wexford-based logistics and haulage business.
While Mr Desmond’s consent to the judgment brought to an end the Nolan family’s case against Mr Desmond, other strands of the proceedings have continued and the matter is listed again for mention in the High Court later this month.
In a statement to the court last May, Mr Desmond said that the scheme which led to the alleged loss of the pension funds was originally designed to shelter the funds from creditors who were calling in the Nolan family debts.
In order to achieve this, he said, it was necessary to dissociate the funds from its owners, involving the setting up of a Swiss bank account so that the Nolan debts could be bought at a discount by an entity not linked to the family, he also claimed.
Denying any wrongdoing, he blamed a number of other parties including bankers and people who were to get involved in a convoluted and unprotected $100 million (€94.7 million) investment scheme for which part of the Nolan funds had been used without the family’s knowledge.
The €6.9 million judgment, which was registered against Mr Desmond on March 22nd and appears in the latest issue of StubbsGazette, was entered last year but was stayed for a period of six months.
