A HIGH Court judge has said he wants a lot more information from the adult children and relatives of bankrupt billionaire Seán Quinn before he will continue an order allowing them €2,000 a week each for living expenses.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly made the comments while hearing an application by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to continue orders freezing assets of the family and appointing a receiver to a number of companies linked to them.

The family has essentially consented to those orders but has raised issues related to the powers of the receivers.

The bank said yesterday it was concerned to have just recently learned that all the Quinn defendants, with the exception of Brenda Quinn but including Seán Quinn jnr’s wife Karen Woods, had received, via companies based in Russia, after-tax salaries which totalled nearly €2.8 million since April last year to an unknown date this year.

There had also been the transfer of 100,000 shares of Quinn Insurances Sweden to a person called Noreen Maguire, about whom the bank knew nothing, for the sum of €10, Paul Gallagher SC, for the bank, said.

The freezing orders are being sought in the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation’s proceedings aimed at preventing dissipation of up to €500 million assets in the Quinn family’s international property group (IPG).

The court granted interim freezing orders last month preventing the Quinns from reducing their assets below €50 million and allowing them each up to €2,000 weekly living expenses pending the matter coming back before the court yesterday.

Freezing orders have been granted against the five Quinn children – Aoife, Ciara, Colette, Brenda and Seán jnr, their cousin Peter Darragh Quinn and two sons-in-law of Seán Quinn — Stephen Kelly and Niall McPartland.

A receiver has already been appointed over the assets of Seán Quinn jnr and Peter Darragh Quinn.

Mr Justice Kelly was told by Bill Shipsey SC, for the Quinns, that his instructing solicitors Eversheds would apply later this week for an order permitting them cease representing Peter Darragh Quinn as they had been unable to take instructions from him since early last Friday.

There was some difficulty about where notice of that application should be served and his side would seek to serve it by ordinary post at an address in Northern Ireland.

Peter Darragh Quinn did not attend a court hearing last Friday before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne where a three-month prison sentence was imposed on him, and on Seán Quinn jnr, for contempt of court for breaching orders restraining the Quinns putting assets in the IPG beyond the reach of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation . Seán Quinn jnr remains in prison.

In relation to the bank’s application to continue the freezing order and appoint a receiver over companies which were based in Belize, Panama, Russia and United Arab Emirates, Mr Shipsey said his clients were consenting to those orders.

An issue in relation to the powers of the receiver, including over the Quinn passports, had been agreed on the basis that the receiver could take their passports, copy them and return them, Mr Shipsey added.

He was confident agreement could be reached about other powers of the receiver.

Mr Justice Kelly was told only one of the nine defendant companies, Blandun Enterprises Ltd of Belize, had been in contact with the court.

There was no appearance on behalf of the other eight companies.

IBRC wants the freezing orders and appointment of the receivers to apply to assets owned or controlled by the Quinn personal defendants.

The bank also says the orders and receivers should also apply to those companies alleged to have co-operated with the Quinns in stripping assets and hiding information about them from the bank.

Mr Gallagher, for IBRC, said much of the evidence that emerged during the contempt proceedings against Seán Quinn, his son Seán Quinn jnr and Peter Darragh Quinn was relevant to the bank’s case of further dissipation of company assets in breach of court orders.

As far as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation was concerned, there was still “a shroud of secrecy” around the Quinn finances and no explanation had been offered on affidavit from the Quinns to very serious allegations that they had misappropriated the funds of the Quinn IPG.

While the bank previously consented to €2,000 a week payments to the Quinns as the freezing order was sought on an interim basis, that was not the bank’s position now as information provided was wrong in very significant respects, Mr Gallagher added.

In an updating affidavit for the court from Richard Woodhouse, group head of specialised asset management at the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the judge was told the estimated rent roll from IPG assets and sale of those assets continued to accrue.

About €35 million (€29 million) is conservatively estimated to accrue in rent from assets including the Kutuzoff Tower and Kazan Logistics Park in Russia, the Ukrania Shopping Centre in Kiev and the Q City development in India, he said.

The Quinn defendants were dependent upon “unco-operative third parties” for information on rent rolls, although affidavit evidence from the Quinns showed they had exercised control over the cash-at-bank of IPG assets and continued to do so, he said.

Apart from the €2.795 million in salaries to most of the Quinns, a second payment of $1 million (€820,000) was made to the Quinn family legal advisers in Russia, AB solicitors, Moscow, as a retainer, using funds extracted from Univermag, a Ukranian company that owned the Ukrania Shopping Centre, he said.

Another €500,000 bond was also paid from company funds towards a legal action by the Quinn children and their mother Patricia in Cyprus, he said.

While various averments had been made in some of the Quinn affidavits that described their efforts to persuade parties who acted as Quinn agents to disclose information, all had declined to do so, Mr Woodhouse said.

He believed the picture presented by the Quinns was “a facade” designed to distract from the fact that the Quinn family remained the owners of these assets and could, if they chose to do so, provide details of the bank accounts related to them.

The hearing continues.