The High Court has ordered that businessman Colm Wu will be made personally liable for the debts of three of his companies if he does not pay €2.15 million to liquidators by April of next year.
Earlier this year the liquidators of three Wu-controlled companies, Myles Kirby and Padraic O’Malley, told the High Court that Mr Wu was diverting money from the companies to himself and other Wu companies, leaving the Revenue and other creditors unpaid.
When the case came before Ms Justice Eileen Roberts on Tuesday, David Whelan SC, for the liquidators, said an order had been drafted whereby Mr Wu would commit to making payments by certain dates or face the stay on the order lapsing, making him personally liable for the debts of Castor Ventures Ltd, Clifton Court Hotel Ltd and NCR Property Ltd, all in voluntary liquidation.
The order would also order 11 other named companies associated with Mr Wu to pay stated amounts to the companies in liquidation, as well as awarding costs in favour of the liquidators.
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Mr Wu, also known as Guo Qing Wu, Colm Guoqing Wu and Wu Guoqing, is a businessman in the property, hospitality and hotel sectors who is associated with, among other businesses, the Mulligan & Haines gastropub on Dame Street.
Ms Justice Roberts made the order with a stay in place if a payment of €750,000 is made by December 18th, and a second payment of €1.4 million by April 30th next. The stay will become permanent if the agreed payments are made on time.
The court was told Mr Wu has given an undertaking that 4 and 5 Talbot Street, Dublin 1, will be sold by Celtic North Sackville Capital Ltd, for no less than €1.95 million, no later than November 28th next.
Eoin Clifford SC, for the three companies in liquidation, said the sale of the Talbot Street properties was at a “very advanced stage”.
Ms Justice Roberts said she hoped that what had led to the need for the order in the first place “was not going to be an ongoing issue”.
In May of next year the court is to hear an application from the liquidators for the disqualification of Mr Wu from acting as a company director for a period to be determined by the court.
The liquidators of the companies alleged the companies had failed to keep proper books of account and that money that was the property of the companies was used to pay the liabilities of other companies in a manner that benefited Mr Wu.
Apart from the three companies in liquidation, the 11 companies cited in the order are: Abbey Lane Hotel (Property) Ltd; Bo Vision Property Management Ltd; Capel Capital Ltd; Celtic Dynamic Investment; Diluca Bistro; Abbey Lane Hotel (Trading) Ltd; Capel Capital Ltd; Mulligan Venture Ltd; Capel Capital Ltd; and Diluca Bistro Ltd.
All of these will have to make stated payments to the three companies in liquidation if the stay on the order is lifted. The court ruled that a freezing order would be altered to allow Mr Wu pay “reasonable costs” to his legal representatives.
