SEÁN QUINN HAS been declared bankrupt at the High Court in Dublin this afternoon following a petition to have him declared as such by the bank formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank.
The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) had sought to declare Quinn bankrupt in the Republic of Ireland after a court in Belfast last week annulled his bankruptcy in the UK.
That Belfast court found that his centre of main interests was not in Northern Ireland as the former owner of Quinn Insurance had claimed and lawyers for IBRC immediately sought a hearing in Dublin.
This afternoon, the High Court in Dublin ruled that Quinn was bankrupt after his lawyers dropped their objection to IBRC’s petition, Irish Independent correspondent Laura Noonan tweeted from inside the court.
The Irish Times’ Simon Carswell noted that Quinn was not in court for the hearing this morning. He had appeared at bankruptcy proceedings in Belfast last week.
IBRC has been pursuing Quinn for billions of euro it says it is owed after it took control of his business empire last year. Once Ireland’s richest man, Quinn has lost millions since the end of the economic boom.
He made huge losses on complex share investments with the now defunct Anglo Irish Bank where he had stake of over 25 per cent at one stage through so-called contracts for difference where a bet is placed on the share price rising. In Anglo’s case, the share price fell dramatically.
Rarely seen in public, Quinn has recently acknowledged he had made big mistakes during the boom years that contributed to his current troubles but argued: “I was wrong and thousands of others were wrong too”
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