Quinns rev up a gear in battle against Anglo

The Quinns have disclosed plans to join the Central Bank (as regulator of Anglo Irish Bank) and the Department of Finance as co-defendants to the family's case alleging that €2.3bn in loans were made by Anglo to Quinn companies for the unlawful purpose of propping up the bank's share price, The Anglo-Celt can reveal. In an exclusive interview with the paper just before Christmas, and as Sean Snr was granted temporary compassionate release, Colette Quinn and her brother-in-law Stephen Kelly (Aoife's husband) said that the Quinns have until mid-January to move the application to join the Central Bank and the Department to the case. They say that things could have been different had the family's plan being accepted by the regulator and the companies not wrested from their control but concede that, regardless of the outcome now, the taxpayer will ultimately end up picking up the pieces. "We are determined to clear our names. We believe we are being made scapegoats in all of this and, if it means that each and everyone of us has to go to jail at some point to prove our case, then we are prepared to do that. It's something I don't think many people are aware of, but we're not just fighting a case here, we're fighting the system and in effect, the government too," Colette told the Celt. With the DPP having sought a stay on the main case being heard for fear of it impinging on criminal proceedings being brought against former Anglo executives Sean Fitzpatrick, William McAteer and Pat Whelan, Colette simply puts, "really, the longer this goes on the more the businesses are being destroyed and their future is taken out of our hands. "Realistically, the family see ourselves before the courts for at least the next three years, so God knows what will be left then, chances are it will be too late. If we are successful in our cases, and I believe we will be, that will leave it open for us to take a very large compensation claim, not just against the bank, but also the regulator and the Department for Finance. It's the taxpayer then who'll lose out, it's very important to establish, this was never our preferred option. What has happened and where this has all come to, this was the bank and the regulator who brought it to this stage," contended Colette. In recent weeks, the family has seen former Quinn Insurance, now Liberty Insurance, introduce both voluntary and compulsory redundancies at its Cavan-based headquarters, and now a proposed joint venture deal for Quinn Cement with a former rival - Lagan Brick (see page 4). "It really is very sad. I've gone beyond being sad for myself and the family, we know what we have to do, but I'm sad for the people who worked with these companies, who stood by them for years and made them what they are, only for it then to stripped away before their eyes, bit by bit, piece by piece, it must be very painful." Colette continues: "If our proposal had have been accepted, if we were allowed to continue to have a role in working in a company, which we knew how to run, in businesses, which we grew and knew from the ground up, things could have been so much different." The proposal she speaks of is that drawn up by BDO Ireland and reviewed by Deutsche Bank where all Quinn properties, the Quinn Group and Quinn Insurance would have been used to repay the €2.8bn advanced by Anglo. The Quinns said at the time, and still maintain today, if they were allowed proceed with it, it would have seen all businesses grow and would have created a further 1,000 jobs over a period of seven years. "If I could ask Anglo one question, though they wouldn't answer it as they'd say it's commercially sensitive, it would be how much money have they got back since they moved into our companies last year, and how much have they spent? They've already spent in the region of between €80-100m in legal fees bringing their case against us, but as for anything coming back to the taxpayer, I'd like to know that figure," asks Colette. The Quinns say Anglo moved first, that "they jumped the gun" after the Quinns had initially sent legal notice to Anglo Irish Bank on March 7, 2011, indicating legal action over the validity of loans paid to the Quinn companies in their name. A little over a month later, Anglo Irish Bank moved against the Quinn Group to enforce those very same loans. On that same date, April 14, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan was also seen to give the move his blessing, saying, "I welcome the debt restructuring plan, which has been agreed in principle between Anglo Irish Bank and the group's lenders. This structure will enable the good and strong businesses to continue to trade and grow. It is particularly important that there will be no impact on employment, on trade creditors or on day to day operations of the Quinn Group." Colette says of this statement: "I'd like to ask him where he got his information from, who was feeding him the information at that time, where he thought the bondholders were going to take a 50% hit from, because, as we all know now, that's been a complete fabrication." See this week's Celt newspaper for full interview and story