A GROUP OF DEVELOPERS referred to as the ‘Maple 10′ or ‘Golden Circle’ who were allegedly given hundreds of millions in loans by Anglo Irish Bank to reinvest in the bank’s shares has been named for the first time in court.
The purchase of the Anglo shares by the bank’s top ten developers was allegedly intended to buy out Seán Quinn’s 10 per cent stake and bolster the bank’s share price.
A further six names – all members of Sean Quinn’s family – were also listed in court yesterday in the 16 fraud charges being brought against former Anglo finance director Willie McAteer. McAteer is accused of giving the Maple 10 and the six Quinn family members unlawful financial assistance for the purpose of, or in connection with, a purchase of Anglo shares, according to court documents.
So who are the so-called Golden Circle identified in court?
Developer McKillen recently estimated that he owes banks around €350m – including €300m to the IBRC, formerly Anglo. McKillen contested the transfer of €2.1bn of his loans from Bank of Ireland to NAMA. The Supreme Court upheld his appeal against the transfer on the basis that the legislation establishing NAMA had not been enacted at the time of the decision to acquire his loans.
The Menolly Homes developer, whose loans have been transferred to NAMA, featured briefly in the Mahon Tribunal. He told the Tribunal that the late TD Liam Lawlor had “plagued” him for payments and that he had paid IR£20,000 to Lawlor after the TD worked on persuading postal authorities to extend a postal district to include lands in west County Dublin where Ross was developing homes.
The McCabe Builders developer owes NAMA around€200m on foot of his loans from Anglo.
The Belfast-based developer owned PBN Holdings Ltd, which was co-founded in Northern Ireland in 2005 by Kearney and former Anglo executive Neil Adair. By the end of 2009, the property company owed over €370m in bank loans, including loans from Anglo, AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank.
Maguire was behind the development of the Laurence Town Centre in Drogheda and owns the Carroll Village complex in Dundalk.
O’Farrell, of N1 Property Developments and O’Farrell Cleere auctioneers, owns the Northside Shopping Centre in Coolock, Dublin. A number of houses his company developed in Naul as ‘Delvin Banks’ were put on the market by NAMA earlier this year.
The Dublin-based developer behind Gannon Homes recently sold his K Club stake to business partner Michael Smurfit as part of NAMA’s asset selling scheme. He and Smurfit had bought the K Club for €115 million in 2005.
The McGarrell Reilly property group developer’s Anglo loans were taken over by NAMA in late 2010.
The Kildare businessman is a property and healthcare investor, and he founded the Mount Carmel Medical Group. The Commercial Court heard early this year that he owed AIB €226.6m at the height of the boom and had given a personal guarantee for €127.5m.
O’Reilly, of Castlethorn Homes, built the country’s largest shopping centre – the Dundrum Town Centre complex in Dublin. Homes he built as holiday houses at Killeen Castle in Co Meath were sold by NAMA under its deferred payment initiative earlier this year, with discounts of up to 80 per cent on the property from their 2008 launch price.
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