Quinns' Swedish group excluded from Anglo's action
FINANCE
ANGLO Irish Bank has "discontinued" its legal action against the Quinn family's Swedish property group -- after the group's bankruptcy made an action against it pointless.
The "notice of discontinuance" was filed by the bank two days before Christmas and affects the Irish case dealing with the battle for control of the €500m international property empire assembled by the Quinns.
Sources stressed that the notice only related to Quinn Investments Sweden (QIS), which was originally listed as one of the defendants in the action.
Sean Quinn, his five children and two sons-in-law cont- inue to be listed as defendants.
Anglo, now known as Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), is asking the High Court to prevent the Quinns from interfering with the €500m property empire or removing assets from it.
Main creditor
Since the bank is the main creditor of bankrupt Quinn Investments Sweden, continuing to sue QIS would be akin to IBRC suing itself, so QIS has now been excluded from the action.
The Irish case is effectively on hold pending deliberations of the Cypriot courts, which the Quinn family wants to assume responsibility for the case.
Sources last night expressed extreme frustration that an outcome from the Cypriot case, which was originally expected by the end of October, has not yet been delivered.
An outcome is now expected this month. IBRC has suffered a series of setbacks in the bank's battle to seize control of the property empire since the bank first moved on the assets last April.
The most recent of these was in the Ukraine.
A company registered in the British Virgin Islands submitted a claim for $45.2m (€34m) against the Quinns' Ukrainian property company 'Univermag'.
The British Virgin Islands company, named Lyndhurst Development Trading SA, was granted the $45.2m judgment by the courts in Kiev on December 26, a decision that IBRC denounced as "legalised robbery".
The ownership of Lyndhurst is unclear because the British Virgin Islands companies office does not facilitate online searches.
- Laura Noonan
Irish Independent
