High Court heard of mass withdrawals of cash and no spending receipts

A series of hearings in the High Court has seen all of Sean Quinn’s children being quizzed about their responses to orders that they produce certain documents.

After Anglo Irish Bank, now part of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, seized the Quinn Group in April 2011, some members of the family tried to put a valuable property group (the International Property Group or IPG) beyond the reach of the bank, even though the bank had security over these assets.

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On June 27th, 2011, Mr Justice Frank Clarke ordered the family to desist in any such efforts.

Sean Quinn senior and his son, Sean junior, have since been jailed for contempt for their part in continuing to put assets beyond the bank’s reach, after the order.

Quinn snr’s nephew, Peter Darragh Quinn, who lives in Northern Ireland, has an arrest warrant out against him for the same reason.

Aoife Quinn

Aoife Quinn (31) is a former claims manager with Quinn Insurance. She has a bachelor of science degree with the Technology Institute, Tralee, and a law qualification from Blackhall Place.

The courts have already heard that the Quinn children, apart from Brenda, were made employees in 2011 of Russian companies that, in turn, owned Russian property that formed part of the international property group.

Aoife Quinn told Paul Gallagher SC, for the bank, that she signed Russian employment contracts that she didn’t understand, and that her husband, Stephen Kelly, her brother, Sean, or Peter Darragh Quinn, would have told her they were employment contracts.

She opened an account in a Moscow Bank, Ocean Bank, into which her salaries were paid. Asked by Mr Justice Kelly how much she was paid, she offered a figure but didn’t know if it was dollars or euro.

Mr Gallagher said her brother’s information was that the amount paid to her, in the year to August 2012, was €379,000 after 30 per cent Russian tax had been deduced. She said Ocean Bank did not issue statements but that she got a text message on her phone each time there was a transaction on the account.

Ms Quinn was questioned about trips to Moscow, Dubai, Kiev and other locations as part of her involvement with the property group. She said she met officials from a group called Senat in Dubai, and that she opened bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates but never lodged money to them.

Asked about trips to Switzerland in late 2011 and early 2012, and whether these had any connection with any Quinn family trust, she said they did not. She said she had withdrawn almost all of the money lodged to her Moscow account using a Visa card. The money had been spent primarily on legal fees.

When Gallagher raised the issue of a $500,000 payment to the Cypriot court paid by a Russian company in the property group, Quinn objected. “Your client wrote to me five weeks before bringing this application and alleged a direct allegation of contempt against me in relation to this payment,” she said.

Ciara Quinn

Ciara Quinn (35), a qualified nurse who worked for nine years as a claims handler with Quinn Insurance, is married to solicitor Niall McPartland.

She was asked by Shane Murphy SC, for the bank, about a company called Cranre, that had an office in Blanchardstown, Dublin. On June 19th, 2011, Eversheds, the law firm then acting for the Quinns, asked Ciara Quinn, by way of email, about the Cranre finances. Before she replied, she received an email from Stephen Kelly saying; “This is dangerous because the source of the funds” was a property company in Kiev.

She was employed by Russian property companies and €339,921.33 was paid into her Ocean Bank account between July 2011 and May 2012. She said she spent the money in Ireland, on legal fees. She didn’t have any receipts. “My sister Aoife dealt with the billing for Eversheds.” Asked by the judge how she got the money from her account, she said she withdrew it in cash. She gave the money to “family members” so the bills could be paid.

Mr Justice Kelly said: “So wads of cash every month were being handed over to members of your family in what you believe to be a discharge of legal fees?” She said this was correct. “I don’t want to discuss why. You have alleged a contempt of court against me. I have three babies at home. I know that the consequences of contempt of court is jail. I am not willing to discuss why I did anything while there is a contempt allegation against me.

Colette Quinn

Colette Quinn (37) told the court she received €339,921.55 between July 2011 and May 2012.

The money was paid into her Ocean Bank account and was withdrawn from ATMs in Ireland using a Visa card.

Withdrawals

Details of some withdrawals were given. The following withdrawals were made from an ATM in Cavan on June 14th, 2012:

At 1631: €640.

At 1632: €640.

At 1637: €900.

At 1638: €900.

At 1639: €900.

At 1640: €900

At 1643: €600.

The total withdrawn was €5,480.

Other withdrawals may have been made.

Mr Justice Kelly said up to 20 withdrawals may have been made that day in Cavan, “so there was a lot of time spent at the machine that day quite clearly”.

Brenda Quinn

Brenda Quinn (24) is former employee of Quinn Insurance.

She left for Australia in May 2011, the month after the Quinn Group was seized by Anglo Irish Bank, and returned in February 2012.

After this time she became involved in the family’s main action – its pending case over the legality of its €2.8 billion debt to the IBRC – but had limited knowledge of matters concerning the conspiracy proceedings. She was not an employee of an IPG companies.

Stephen Kelly

Stephen Kelly (31) told the court his income from the Russian property group companies between July 2011 and May 2012, was €260,536.36. The court heard he was a director of Cranre and that it signed a services agreement with Univermag, a Ukrainian company in the property group, which led to a number of six-figure payments going to Cranre from Univermag during 2011.

He told the court he was in a difficult position in relation to being asked questions about Cranre, when an allegation of contempt had been made against him in correspondence from solicitors for IBRC, McCann Fitzgerald.

Kelly made cash withdrawals from his Moscow account using Irish ATMs. He mentioned the money being used to pay Eversheds but said it was not simply the case that he could ask the legal firm for copies of receipts.

“It’s a bit more complicated. I am not a client of Eversheds. I think Senat Legal [in Dubai] is a client of Eversheds. So Senat Legal would have to make the request of Eversheds.” Mr Justice Kelly noted Eversheds had been “on record” in the court as representing the family.

Niall McPartland

Niall McPartland (38), husband of Ciara, is a solicitor.

He told the court that, although he was an employee of Quinn Insurance, he had worked in other parts of the Quinn Group as well.

McPartland’s declared bank accounts included a UBS Swiss bank account.

He received €281,048.55 from Russia property group companies.

Documentation

Unlike the witnesses who came before him, he said he did have documentation that showed how he had spent money from the account, but he did not think this was covered by the order for the production of documents made by the court.

He said he had signed his employment contracts at a time when the Quinn Group had been seized by the bank.

“I was told that I was going to be doing general work in Russia. … I would be required to travel to Russia and generally get stuck in and help out where needed. They are the facts, that’s what happened.

He said that it was his understanding that the Eversheds bills were discharged through Senat.

Sean Quinn Jnr

Sean Quinn junior (33) gave evidence on his own behalf and on behalf of his wife, Karen Woods. Asked how Senat got the money it used to pay Eversheds, he said he did not believe that issue was covered by the discovery order.

He said he got €399.308.53 from his Russian employment and his wife got €320.297.22.

He said he had documents relating to how this money was spent but he did not think they were covered by the order. He said he did not think his job was a step for the removal of money from the property group.

Quinn said that for years prior to April 2011 a Quinn company had provided services to the international property group companies and that family members had extensive experience in relation to the services involved.

‘Precarious position’

He said it was not the case, as had been said by some, that rental income from the property group companies had gone missing. He contested any suggestion that he was hiding any documents.

“I have been found guilty of contempt. I have served three months in jail. I have agreed to sell my family home with my wife Karen. I am in a very precarious position.”