Why German nationals are going bankrupt from Kilkenny and Carlow

Directors listed as resident in Co Kilkenny holiday homes

Kanzlei Rieger & Partner

John Mulligan Twitter Email

May 26 2022 02:30 AM

A clutch of holiday homes in Co Kilkenny have become an unlikely epicentre for dozens of German nationals availing of bankruptcy and other business services in Ireland, an Irish Independent investigation has found.

The German directors of law firm Kanzlei Rieger & Partner have used firms they established in Cyprus and Ireland to act as corporate secretary to dozens of companies they’ve set up and based at an address in Carlow town. Kanzlei Rieger & Partner has offices in countries including Germany, Cyprus and Latvia – as well as Carlow.

The current and former directors of the Irish firms include a gallery of some well-known figures in Germany who are involved in everything from business, sport and politics to motivational speaking, the Irish Independent has established.

Pascal Verbracken and Cornelius Rieger own Kanzlei Rieger & Partner.

In Ireland, they have used Cyprus-based DPCE Consulting Europe Ltd and Ireland-based VR Bookkeeping Ltd to legitimately establish as many as 30 firms in Carlow town over the past couple of years. Ireland has increasingly become a destination of choice for German nationals seeking to go bankrupt, with laws here that are more favourable to debtors than in their home country. They can also often go bankrupt here out of the glare of publicity back home. Bankruptcy secured in one EU country must be recognised in another EU member state.

The Irish Independent identified almost 10 Kanzlei Rieger clients who have been adjudicated bankrupt in Ireland.

However, Mr Rieger insisted the majority of the German
clients it assists in Ireland want to come and live here and set up businesses here.

The dozens of companies set up at an address on Tullow Street in Carlow town by DPCE Consulting and VR Bookkeeping list German directors with a residential address at the Ullard Holiday Home complex, at Graiguenamanagh in Co Kilkenny.

The holiday homes were formerly owned by the late developer Liam Carroll, the so-called ‘Shoebox King’, in reference to the large number of small apartments he built in Dublin in the 1990s.

Mr Carroll had at one stage planned to build a large hotel and conference centre at the site. The properties were bought in a BidX auction in 2018 by a local businessman, it’s understood.

“The clients are calling us and want to open a company in Ireland, want to live in Ireland, and you know how hard it is to find an apartment [in Ireland] from Germany,” said Mr Rieger.

This article was amended on 26 May 2022